Interviews with global talent leaders, surveys of thousands of recruiting professionals, and analysis of billions of data points on LinkedIn has shed light on the future of the talent industry.
The results are highlighted in LinkedIn's 'Future of Recruiting 2023' report.
Here's a quick look at some of the predictions.
Recruitment will drive business-critical changes
87% of recruiting professionals agree that talent acquisition has become more strategic over the past year and 70% note their teams have a seat at the proverbial C-suite table. This influence ranges from talking to CFOs about compensation strategy to working with chief learning officers on skill gaps in the workforce.
The feedback loop between recruiting, finance, and DEI needs to be more agile than ever. Recruitment leaders have the clearest view of candidate priorities, market dynamics, and real-time recruiting performance and can help their companies stay ahead of the curve.
A need for strategic soft skills
Communication and relationship building are expected to be the top two soft skills recruiters will need to possess over the next five years. With candidates retaining the upper hand, employers need to know how to engage with them.
Adaptability, problem-solving, and business acumen also rank among the top five soft skills recruiters will need in the future. As talent acquisition professionals become more strategic partners, they’ll need to adjust on the fly and find solutions that support business goals.
Recalibrating what's pitched to candidates
Companies need to stay focused on building talent pipelines, even if their hiring has slowed for the moment. Companies are taking this opportunity to improve or reinvent their employer brand, with 60% of in-house recruiting professionals predicting their employer branding investments will increase this year.
To stay competitive, employers will have to make sure they're aligned with what candidates are looking for today. The top priority for candidates today is compensation and benefits, by a fairly wide margin, followed by work-life balance and flexible working arrangements.
Skills first hiring will become the gold standard
Slowly but surely, employers have begun to embrace skills-first hiring. Since 2019, the share of recruiter searches on LinkedIn that include a skills filter has grown by 25% — and today, recruiters are 50% more likely to search by skills than they are to search by years of experience.
94% of recruiters surveyed said that understanding employee skills is required to make informed talent decisions — though slightly less (84%) say it’s currently a priority at their company.
Embracing tech to focus on the human part of hiring
Two-thirds (68%) of recruiters surveyed said they were “very hopeful” or “cautiously optimistic” about the impact of Generative AI (GAI) will have on recruiting — helping them save time and focus on the strategic and human aspects of recruitment.
While GAI may help draft content, the report highlights that it’s crucial to keep a “human in the loop” — someone with the right know-how should always be there to carefully review and fine-tune generated content.
The research suggests that recruitment will need to be more strategic, companies will need to understand their skills gaps, stay ahead of market trends, and build a talent pipeline that meets their needs to stay competitive.
Are your current methods producing the right calibre of candidates?
As specialists on the frontline of data-driven marketing talent markets, we are well placed to help organisations in this transition.
Whether you need to reduce your time-to-hire or improve the quality of your candidates, we can help you review your practices, KPIs and benchmarks to identify where you can improve.
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