The Great Detachment: What It Means For Recruiting
Welcome to The Great Detachment. This is a growing workforce trend where employees feel increasingly disconnected from their jobs. They want to leave but feel stuck due to the crummy job market.
Honestly, I've never seen a recruiting market quite like this before. It's like we've stepped into the Upside Down from Stranger Things.
The Great Detachment has been hovering around since 2023. More and more employees are reevaluating their relationship with work and detaching from the idea that their job defines their identity and sense of purpose. This feeling of disengagement is especially prevalent among Gen Z, who are often linked with "quiet quitting" and the anti-hustle work culture.
Although this workforce trend has created its fair share of TA challenges, it's also opened the doors for these programs:
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If you've been in talent acquisition for more than 10 years, then you've seen plenty of workforce trends come and go. While we could ride this one out, there's a better option. We can seize this moment to rethink talent acquisition and find ways to break through the other side of this wave of disengagement.
So, how should talent acquisition leaders look for answers to help solve the problem of those candidates who are checked out and disengaged but too concerned about the job market to make a move? We need innovative strategies. Recruiting leaders must invest in strategies that showcase company culture, growth opportunities, and work-life balance.
ERE's Kevin W. Grossman and his team give the coveted CandE awards to companies that have demonstrated innovative ways to attract talent while enhancing the candidate experience. Their strategies and tactics set expectations for work-life balance, transparency, and mental health support, reducing turnover risk.
Another area is internal mobility. I'm looking forward to the ERE Recruiting Conference, especially hearing Edie Goldberg's session, Beyond Hiring: Mastering the Talent Ecosystem for Strategic Advantage. She'll discuss innovative strategies for internal mobility, a responsibility that recruiters and TA leaders are taking on.
Now is the time to pivot, innovate, and elevate the TA profession. Join us at the ERE Recruiting Conference to tackle some challenges and break free of this upside-down recruiting world to become irreplaceable.