According to the leaders, only 20% of recruitment will be done through external vendors & HR consultants, and agencies, while 80% of the leaders will consider internal hiring to be their first choice of hiring.

Work from anywhere culture is a boon for all those who have the skill but not the means. This era marks the dawn of gig workforce. The experience of being effective in 2020 while working remote shall give a strong boost to the Gig economy and hybrid workforce in 2021 shall be a reality, according to the 2021 Talent Technology Outlook study, by SCIKEY.

Talent will be the second biggest currency of 2021. Promoting diversity, inclusion and business pressure for cost optimization will give Gig a major push, even though external hiring will be limited. According to the leaders, only 20% recruitment will be done through external vendors & HR consultants and agencies, while 80% of the leaders will consider internal hiring to be their first choice of hiring. Hence, the focus on Learning and development of core skills and behavioural and leadership competencies will be a defining factor in future, says 87% of the leaders.

According to the SCIKEY Study, the workforce of future will be expected to be adaptable and possess business acumen skills. The report says that 67% of the leaders feel that versatility in workforce is critical, both while hiring and when retaining talent. While 87% leaders feel that critical thinking is one of the key elements they expect from their people. Almost all the leaders (93%) feel that business acumen is must have skill of future, the report added. The remote access to this vast talent pool will immensely improve the quality of hire and fill the skill gap in 2021.

The study reveals another trend that suggests employers will be critically thinking to improve the employee experience for talent retention as external hiring will be limited. With remote work, poaching talent will become easy, so it will be of utmost importance for organizations to retain their best minds. The report also reveals that 87% of the leaders feel that measuring employee performance in remote work is a vital challenge & 73% feel that employee engagement is a major issue in terms of remote working. This new paradigm shift will call out even the companies to have robust systems to enable hiring, on-boarding & employee engagement remotely.

The study is an analysis of inputs from 100-plus C-suite and human capital leaders done by SCIKEY, through surveys, social media inputs, interviews and panel discussions.

Further it says that 87% of the leaders feel the necessity of skill upgradation and there will be a race to re-skill/up-skill and soft skills like agility, adaptability and resilience will pave the path for future.

This sudden & massive shift to a completely different work model also led to organizations discovering the skill gaps that existed & are expected to increase further in the time to come.