The past several years have been a whirlwind for talent acquisition professionals. New challenges emerged every few months that forced recruiting teams to adapt their strategies on the fly in order to remain successful in one of the most competitive talent markets in recent memory. Keeping up with the latest trends in talent acquisition has been critical to success, as new approaches and tools emerge on a regular basis.
As we enter 2023, the recruiting landscape is still in flux. Faced with economic uncertainty, smaller budgets, and ever-evolving candidate expectations, every talent acquisition professional is naturally wondering “what’s the next trend in talent acquisition?”
While no one knows exactly what the future holds, we’ve started to see some new talent acquisition trends emerge that will likely be dominant themes of 2023. After reviewing surveys and studies from trusted sources within the recruiting industry, we’ve compiled a list of the latest trends in talent acquisition, along with actionable tips that can help recruiters prepare for each one.
We won’t go too deep into the macroeconomic outlook in this article but we will say that talent acquisition professionals can expect competitive hiring to remain a trend in 2023 and beyond. The driving force behind the tight talent market is the declining number of people who are working age. According to a report from Indeed and Glassdoor, the overall workforce in the U.S. is expected to decrease by about 3% over the next 10-15 years.
Despite news of layoffs and predictions of an economic downturn, the demand for workers will likely exceed the supply of candidates in the coming years. And HR and talent acquisition leaders are already feeling the pinch. A survey from Jobvite found that 88% of HR decision-makers believe hiring in 2023 will be as challenging or even more difficult than it was in 2022.
If candidates continue to have the upper hand, what will it take to get them to pick your opportunity over the others they’re considering?
Over the past few years, the popular narrative has been that candidates were willing to forgo high-paying job opportunities for ones that offered flexible work arrangements, valued DEI, or had a strong leadership team. However, our research shows one of the latest trends in talent acquisition is that candidates are making compensation their top priority once again. At the end of 2022, Sense surveyed more than 1,000 job seekers and found that salary/benefits and career advancement opportunities are the top two factors they value the most when considering a job.
Going forward, we predict that candidates in many industries will view things like remote work, flexible schedules, and DEI as baseline requirements in any job rather than perks. So they’ll look for the opportunity that pays the most and positions them to advance their career while assuming all the jobs they’re considering offer all or most of these secondary factors.
Faced with a tight labor market, many organizations will turn to their current employees to drive growth and progress in 2023.
Many leaders might be wary of asking their employees to take on tasks outside of their job descriptions but, as we covered in the last prediction, people want to acquire new skills and take on challenges that help them advance their careers.
That means offering candidates the opportunity to learn and grow while on the job is actually a recruiting advantage, but also an area many organizations need to improve in. A survey conducted by iCIMS found that only 30% of employees have a clear pathway to promotion in their organization.
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Given that hiring will continue to be competitive in 2023, recruiters will not be able to count on outdated methods of attracting and engaging talent.
Multiple studies show that the average time-to-hire exceeds 40 days, or just under 6 weeks, depending on the industry and type of role. But candidates aren’t willing to wait that long, especially if the recruiter does a poor job of keeping in touch with them throughout the hiring process.
According to a candidate survey conducted by Kforce, the majority of respondents said waiting to hear back after the initial interview was the most frustrating part of their job search experience. And 60% said they lose interest in a job if they have to wait more than a week to receive an offer after interviewing.
Our research shows that one of the latest trends in talent acquisition will be that candidates will no longer tolerate a poor experience. The Sense candidate survey we referenced earlier revealed that:
Prioritize the candidate experience: How to engage candidates in 2023
Want to learn how to accelerate hiring and reduce costs while increasing candidate satisfaction? Check out “The Definitive Guide to Talent Engagement” ebook.
Even as hiring slows down, companies are continuing to expect their recruiting teams to fill roles with top talent as quickly as possible. And as we covered, candidates are expecting a seamless hiring experience with frequent updates and communication along the way. But despite lofty expectations from both companies and candidates, recruiters will likely not see their team or resources expand in 2023.
In many companies, the recruiting team has been hit the hardest by reduced budgets and hiring slowdowns. But expectations remain the same. That means recruiters will need to find new ways to complete tasks and accomplish their hiring goals. And that will require turning to AI and automation to work faster and more efficiently (which brings us to our final prediction).
Even though recruiting teams are stretched thin, new technology is continuously emerging that boosts recruiter productivity, accelerates hiring, and improves the candidate experience. In fact, AI recruiting and automation are already a current trend in talent acquisition and it’s streamlining the hiring process in a variety of ways, including:
AI-powered recruiting automation helps TA teams progress through the hiring process faster and easier than ever before. Even more, it frees them to focus on more impactful work and anticipate and react to new trends in the constantly-changing world of recruiting and hiring.
Check out our “Recruiting Automation Playbook for 2023” and learn how leveraging new technology will give you an edge this year and beyond.
