Market Update Blog 2022 - deverellsmith Property

Three things I’m forecasting this year:

Wage inflation
Increased volume of job movement
Flexibility

According to ONS,the number of job vacancies in August to October 2021 continued to rise to a new record of 1,172,000, an increase of 388,000 from the pre-coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic January to March 2020 level, with 15 of the 18 industry sectors showing record highs.

Due to a saturated job market and small search pools, the market condition has enabled candidates to request higher salaries and given employees the confidence to ask for pay reviews within their current roles. The market is demonstrating an unbalanced performanceof supply vs demand, a negative implication for any industry.

To highlight the above point, ONS reported, in real terms (adjusted for inflation), total and regular pay continues to grow at a faster rate than inflation, at 1.7% for total pay and 1.0% for regular pay.

Therefore, we recommend that employers should be cautionary when making offers, a selection of requests are not necessarily in line with skills and wider market value. Some candidates are justifiably worth what they’re asking, others are testing to see how far they can push. There is an element of caution which needs to be taken.

If you get salaries wrong, it can cost your business more in the long-run and disrupt your entire organisation; employees get complacent - or worse - dissatisfied as information is shared internally amongst staff. This results in the loss of not just one staff member but numerous!

We have a team at deverellsmith that specialises in crunching market numbers, analysing packages and providing reports that can guide you in making the right decision for your business.

In the coming months and throughout 2022, the market will see an increase in hungry candidates feeling motivated and inspired to focus on their career development. Record levels of candidate confidence have been reported, Total Jobs highlight that15% of UK working-age adults were currently job-seeking as of December 2021, with this figure estimated to rise to 21% in 2022.

As the pandemic transitions towards Covid becoming endemic, flexible working will need to find its place. Determining your policy will provide current and prospective employees with a sense of certainty and I can almost guarantee that if your business isn’t offering some element of flexibility then the talentpool you’ll be fishing from will significantly decrease.

To support this statement, Total Jobs reportedthe top reasons for job satisfaction were:

→ Flexible Working (45%)

→ Working Relationships (45%)

Additionally, during January 2022 deverellsmith conducted a survey with over 300 property professionals’ on whether they would consider a job if it didn’t offer a flexible working policy. 56% of participants would not and just 8% declared that it depended on the salary.

As well as flexibility, diversity has taken on increased significance across an organisation’s offering in 2021. I’m confident that this will continue throughout 2022 with a more widespread focus. I’dsuggest that all employers should consider diverse skillsets when hiring and looking to build teams;71% of job seekers are open to working in a different industry according to Total Jobs, and by doing so your prospective employee search poolinstantly grows, and rapidly.

Areas we’ve seen that have already put the above into practice: technology, C-Suite, sustainability, executive search, and leadership roles.

To cater for the skill shortage within the markets and to allow the hiring landscape to balance out, interim, temporary or contract solutions will certainly increase. According to Signature Recruitment, the number of temporary workers in the UK accounts for 6% of the overall employment figure from July-October 2021, the highest level it’s been at since 2017.1

Organisations are using interim workers to tackle short term problems and enable long-term solutions to be managed efficiently.

Long-term and strategic hiring plans will be a major focus for decision makers to ensure recruitment is streamlined, efficient and saving on cost and resources. We’ll be saying goodbye to old-fashioned methods which originated in the 90’s andno longer align with a company’s wider mission, vision or goals. Hiring products which service a unified outlook will be more prevalent, including: