Randstad’s 2016 Hot Jobs List Finds HR Generalist Candidates in Demand

After a strong year of job growth — employers added 2.7 million jobs to the economy in 2015 —employers are fighting to bring in top talent in a highly competitive job market.

Staffing agency Randstad recently released its 2016 list of “hot jobs”in the engineering, finance and accounting, human resources, information technology, manufacturing and logistics, and office and administration industries, which details some interesting predictions for HR in the year to come.

The list lays out the three most in-demand jobs for each of these fields. Human resources generalist, learning and development manager, and human resources business partner topped the list for HR roles positioned for the most growth in 2016. Salaries for these positions range from $45,000 to $120,000. These jobs require candidates to have specialized knowledge, particularly in regard to talent acquisition and retention, succession planning and compensation, and workforce engagement.

The authors of the list argue that organizations need HR personnel with specialized knowledge to keep up in a rapidly changing work environment that makes it more difficult to stay on top of industry trends.  It’s becoming crucial for a company’s HR employees to be comfortable involving themselves in the larger business decisions and strategies and to be communicating with senior executives. Without these skilled employees, businesses will suffer, Randstad said.

“We do anticipate that organizations will gravitate this year toward candidates with more specific skill sets to cope with an increasingly complex workforce environment,” said Kathryn Bolt, group president, Randstad Professionals and Tatum, in a news release.