Every year recruitment industry expert Kevin Wheeler attempts to predict the upcoming trends of the year, and more often that not - he’s on the money!

This year Kevin predicts the following:

1. Rise in Non-Traditional Employment: I agree with the fact that more employers will be much more cautious when added full-time headcount and will be doing much more due diligence when making permanent hiring decisions. However, in some sectors such as Engineering, our view is that the supply and demand equation will be very much in favour of talent in 2010 and beyond. We also believe that employers will need to show flexibility in the way they can add capability to their business if they want to deliver on projects, so if candidates want to be staff then employers should be prepared to offer permanent employment to secure that resource.
2. Increase mobility in workforce: did I hear someone say iPhone? as many more smart phones & other mobile devices become more accepted and pervasive in the corporate environment we will continue to see a trend where ‘productivity’ is important, not “seeability”( we made that word up) i.e whether your face is seen in the office between 8:30am-5:30pm. At Peerlo we live by this mantra and we have already experienced the implications and benefits that Cloud Computing and Mobile Computing is having on our business.
3. Fewer Recruiters- More RPO’s: Kevin predicts that the volume of recruiters ( both in-house and 3rd party ) will decrease and that only ‘The recruiters who remain will be highly skilled in using social networks, in living and working virtually, in influencing and selling, and in learning their trade more thoroughly than ever” Well Mr Wheeler has just described the capability and competences of a team member at Peerlo.  We understand the changing nature of the recruitment industry and as such are building new business models that will adapt to the evolution of our market. We are also ensuring all of our recruiters are skilled at sourcing and using social networks to find & attract the best available people for our clients.

Thanks for your thoughts Kevin - and we’ll check back in this time next year to see if your were right! You can read Kevin’s post here

All the Best for 2010!