5 Trending HR and Recruitment Topics in August 2024

This month, the Paris 2024 Olympics took the world by storm. As we watched athletes compete for gold, HR experts were inspired to discuss peak performance at work. 

Experts have also been discussing the benefits of paternity leave, the increase of scammers posing as HR representatives, the risks of quiet vacationing and the rise of AI-generated resumes and cover letters. Read on as we dive into each topic.  

Trend 1: The Olympics and peak performance 

People have long drawn parallels between sport and business. That’s why it didn’t surprise us that this year’s Olympic Games had HR leaders worldwide discussing how to create high-performing employees and teams. 

For Olympic athletes, mental toughness, mindset, and motivation are as critical as physical prowess. Similarly, in the workplace, psychological factors impact performance at all levels. Employees with a strong mindset are better able to overcome challenging situations, strive for set goals and champion other teammates. 

Indeed, former Olympians and Paralympians have noted skills such as goal setting, perseverance, adaptability, determination and resilience learned from sports have helped them in their business careers. 

‍Tips for building higher performing teams ‍

When it comes to building high-performing teams and eliciting peak performance, HR experts have a range of tips to share. Here is a distillation of top tips shared around the web. 

1. ‍Start with the individual: High performance starts with helping employees understand themselves and their strengths and weaknesses. By starting with the individual, HR leaders can work with managers to create personalised coaching plans that can help bring out the best in an employee. As with athletes, individualised plans can lead to greater success.  ‍
2. Cultivate a sense of purpose and team spirit: Even solo athletes work with a team. Leaders can boost performance by creating a strong sense of shared purpose among their teams. By creating a shared purpose, leaders reinforce shared effort and encourage candid feedback and mutual respect. They can also encourage collaboration as employees seek to help each other both excel and recover. ‍
3. Sweat the small stuff: In both sports and work environments, success can hinge on the finest margins.  Small adjustments can therefore have a significant impact. In sports, a slight tweak in technique or strategy can turn a close game into a decisive victory. Similarly, in the workplace, a minor change in workflow or communication style can lead to increased productivity and morale.‍
4. Understand the power of environments: Environments strongly impact success. For instance, a more introverted athlete may benefit from quiet time before a competition. Similarly, an employee who gets overwhelmed by distractions may not work best in an office full-time.  

By becoming aware of and addressing environmental challenges, performance can be optimised for both individuals and teams. 

Trend 2: Scammers are masquerading as HR 

Security awareness training company, KnowBe4, has released its Q2 2024 top-clicked phishing report, The report highlights ongoing trends in the emails most frequently clicked on during phishing tests. Results show that phishing emails with HR-related subject lines are the most clicked by employees, a trend first identified in KnowBe4's 2024 Phishing by Industry Benchmarking Report.  

Examples of successful phishing subject lines include:  

• Important: Dress code changes
• Your training is past due 
• Invitation: Quarterly financial performance review 
• You’ve been assigned additional cybersecurity training 

Emails with HR subject lines like the above can be effective as HR holds power in the workplace. HR-themed emails can therefore provoke a person to react before thinking logically about the legitimacy of the email. 

Experts at KnowBe4 also warned of the growing use of QR codes in phishing emails across the world.

"Prominent email subjects prompting employees to scan QR codes included MFA migrations, reminders from HR, and password expiration notifications," KnowBe4 said in its media release.

‍Avoiding phishing attacks 

‍HR can play a key role in cybersecurity by teaming up with IT to create effective cyber awareness training programs and improve IT hygiene (see also: Trend 4). 

Mitigating threats can start with:  

• Creating anti-phishing training programs: Train employees to spot phishing emails and ensure employees are aware scammers can pose as departments like HR and other employees. 
• Staying informed on scams: Keep updated on the latest scams and share new information with employees. In larger companies, IT can communicate with HR to spread the word. In smaller companies, consider designating a cybersecurity officer.
• Creating a cyber-safe culture:  Regularly reinforce cyber policies as you would other workplace policies. Ensure employees know how and to whom to report suspicious emails or phishing attempts.

Overall, creating a strong partnership with IT and building a cyber-safe culture can significantly reduce the risks of phishing attacks, protecting both your employees and your organisation.

Trend 3: The benefits of paternity leave

The recent World Bank Global Gender Gap 2024 report finds that when more men take paternity leave, more women participate in the workforce. 

Paternity leave also benefits men. As discussed in CBS News,  spending time with infants can positively impact any adult brain, regardless of gender. When adults spend time with their new babies, their brains can be rewired to be more empathetic, more patient and overall, more prepared to be a parent.  

In addition, dads enjoy spending time with their children with some calling paternity leave an eye-opener when it comes to understanding domestic responsibilities. 

Overall, paternity leave is on the rise. According to the Global Gender Gap Report mentioned above, over the past 50 years, the average number of maternity leave days has increased from 63 to 107. Paternity leave days have increased from less than half a day to more than nine. 

Recently, Japan made headlines with paternity leave jumping to a record high of 30%. Japan's increased paternity leave is fuelled by government mandates and a growing desire for work-life balance among young employees. One takeaway for HR leaders around the world is that for top candidates, paternity leave may become an attractive benefit that can be used to recruit and retain employees. 

Promoting paternity leave 

According to LinkedIn, even if your country does not offer generous — or guaranteed — paid parental leave for both parents, companies can play a key role in encouraging nonbirthing parents to be more equal caregivers. Here’s how:  

• ‍Start by offering paternity leave: Make your paternity leave benefits attractive by providing plenty of paid time off, so that nonbirthing parents have enough time to bond with their new child without financial stress. ‍
• Design inclusive policies: Include families of all types in your parental leave policies, keeping in mind that families have all sorts of parenting situations.‍
• Implement a “use it or lose it” policy: To encourage employees to take full advantage of paternity leave, offer it as a “use it or lose it” benefit. If nonbirthing parents don’t take advantage of the benefit, they lose it forever. ‍
• Remove the stigma that nonbirthing parents face: Nonbirthing parents are often reluctant to parental leave for fear of hurting their careers. One way to counter this is by having senior leaders take paternity leave. They can serve as role models and signal that it’s safe to take time off. 

In short, promoting paternity leave not only supports gender equality but also fosters a more engaged, empathetic, and balanced workforce, ultimately benefiting both employees and organisations.

Trend 4: The risks of quiet vacationing 

Since COVID-19 and the rise of remote work, quiet vacationing has become a trend. 

Quiet vacationing happens when remote employees secretly take time off without using their paid time off (PTO). Quiet vacationing can also occur when employees secretly travel and work from holiday spots without informing their workplace. In this case, work would still be completed but employers would be unaware of an employee’s true location. 

This month, sites like Forbes and SBS are reporting on the risks of quiet vacations:  

Risks include: 

• Rising burnout as employees don’t truly unplug from work 
• Increased vulnerability to cybersecurity breaches as employees may log in to work from compromised systems 
• More difficulty in providing a safe work environment for employees 

Overall, employees who engage in quiet vacationing without their employer’s knowledge can face serious legal consequences. So, how can HR respond to quiet vacations? 

Responding to quiet vacations 

One of the best ways to deal with quiet vacations is to encourage employees to take holidays and use their PTO. Recent data from the company Sorbet, shows that Gen Z and millennial employees may feel reluctant to take time off due to negative perceptions, as a result they are not using their PTO. 55% of employees said they felt pressure from employers not to take time off. 

By encouraging time off, HR teams can reduce instances of quiet vacations and let employees know it is OK to take a break. 

Another way to combat quiet vacations is to address quiet working. Quiet working happens when employees continue to check emails, join calls, or otherwise engage in work while on holiday.  HR can help by encouraging leaders to model clearer work-life boundaries and take proper holidays.

Where appropriate, HR teams can also develop clear policies around workcations and establish a formal channel for requests. For example, at Xref, employees can work from anywhere in the world for two weeks per annum. Managers must approve such requests as with regular PTO. 

Trend 5: Employers flooded with AI resumes

Job seekers are increasingly using generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) to land their next role. Candidates are using GenAI to write resumes, cover letters and even take recruitment tests.

Up to half of candidates are now using GenAI tools — in some cases flooding employers with a high volume of "low-quality" applications, The Financial Times reports. 

According to Forbes, the problem with overreliance on AI is that candidates can “catfish” employers. Catfishing occurs in the work world when candidates overstate their abilities and skills, lie about employment or, as mentioned, overly use GenAI during the recruitment process. 

Another problem with overreliance on AI is that candidate applications can all begin to look the same. 

Overuse of AI can make a resume appear formulaic and impersonal. It can muffle the job seeker’s unique voice and potential. Thus, experts advise that it’s best to use it to improve spelling and grammar without sanitising a resume. 

Strategies for mitigating AI use 

Here are key tips organisations can use to weed out applicants who use AI for bulk applying.

1. At the bottom of job descriptions, ask the candidate to enter a certain keyword or phrase and to place that word or phrase somewhere specific in their application. ‍
2. Use live video interviews: Use live video interviews more frequently throughout the screening process to gauge a candidate’s enthusiasm and conviction. ‍
3. Ask follow-up questions: While consistency and structure are key to ensure fairness when interviewing, allowing for some natural flow and follow up questions can help you dive deeper into examples of work experience.‍
4. Utilise smart reference checks: By cross-checking a candidate’s past experience with a best-practice system, employers can do a better job at spotting candidate catfishing. 

By implementing these strategies, employers can better identify candidates who rely too heavily on AI and ensure they find applicants who truly match the role.

Final thoughts 

This month, the Paris 2024 Olympics inspired conversations around peak performance, drawing parallels between athletic and workplace success. Security concerns rose with scammers posing as HR representatives, while paternity leave gained traction as a tool for promoting gender equality and work-life balance. The risks of quiet vacationing revealed challenges in remote work culture, and the rise of AI-generated resumes underscored the need for more authentic hiring processes.