Employers in the telecoms sector are cautiously optimistic about hiring for the coming months. They plan to expand the size of their workforce this quarter – which is in stark contrast to the beginning of the year, when headcount was being reduced.

What does this mean for telecoms employers? In short, competition for talent is going to get harder. More organisations will be competing for the same workers when employment is at record-highs and unemployment low. While Telecoms employers may plan on recruiting additional workers in the coming months, HR need to review the shortage of alternative roles they’re offering to attract the best talent.

Growing Demand For New Ways Of Working And Workplace Flexibility

In such a tight labour market, when half of large UK businesses report difficulties in recruiting, businesses are not factoring in how people want to work into their workforce planning. Alternative employment models are one example of this. Workers increasingly want to work in non-traditional ways, with nearly half of workers preferring an alternative to full-time, permanent work – such as the gig economy, contract, project, part-time, seasonal or temporary positions. In spite of this, few organisations in the telecoms world are offering these types of opportunities.

Added to this, when we surveyed 14,000 workers, 40% told us that schedule flexibility is one of the top three things they consider when making career decisions, but it’s not always clear if employers can offer this when they apply. This covers a broad spectrum of different work arrangements – such as flexible arrival and departure times; the ability to work from home; and compressed working weeks. Telecoms companies that proactively create flexible work arrangements are at an advantage when recruiting and retaining in-demand talent. While they undoubtedly have a right to be concerned about the productivity of their employees, when there is strong competition for talent, this must be balanced against the needs and expectations of the workers they wish to attract.

Benefits To Employers

Research found that 38% of hiring managers expect their employees to predominantly work remotely in the next ten years. Employers must understand this dynamic, as employees are now using workplace flexibility as an important parameter for choosing a job, and this is a trend that shows no signs of stopping.

If organisations fail to offer the employment models that workers are looking for, in-demand talent may well look elsewhere – this would be a real problem at a time when telecoms employers want to expand their workforce.

What’s more, it’s important to note that these changes wouldn’t just benefit the employee. They can deliver significant benefits to the telecoms industry too. Offering alternative hiring options can make organisations more agile and responsive to the market. Recruiting in this way is often faster; requires fewer approvals from managers and human resources executives; and leap-frogs traditional job postings.

Aligning To The Preferences Of Workers

Telecom employers have cautiously optimistic hiring plans for the months ahead. But to recruit and keep top talent, they must become more effective at listening and responding to candidate preference. HR is at the heart of an organisation’s transformation and is best placed to prepare the workforce for the future of work. Alternative employment choices and technologies are evolving fast, and some are becoming obsolete even before they can even be adopted. The only way to keep up is to look ahead and prepare for this evolution through learning and adoption.

At the heart of this is data. With sophisticated talent analytics, telecoms employers can predict future success, rather than rely on past performance to guide decision making. ManpowerGroup can help with this. Through best-in-class data warehousing, we help employers understand what will limit the potential of their workforce; what will nurture it; and what will make it thrive. Armed with this intelligence, we then develop comprehensive workforce strategies that can lead the organisation into the future of work with confidence.

If you’d like to learn more about how we can support your recruitment strategy, please don’t hesitate to contact us.