Outlook 2023: Matching the Right Technology with Recruitment Trends

Employers have been eager to rebound in 2022 as the world reached a consensus that the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic had passed. To that end, hiring has been a key activity on the agenda in many organizations. Recruitment trends that emerged just before and during the pandemic are having a large influence on how these companies are attaining new hires. 

In addition to the current difficulties that many HR teams are having with attracting and retaining talent, a looming recession is also putting pressure on executive teams to pay closer attention to costs while still getting results. 

According to the Hackett Group, HR leaders expected budgets to decline by 0.2% and headcounts to increase by only 0.4% in 2022 to manage a 9% increase in workload. The expectation is that investing in technology will help to improve productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness. Going into 2023, it’s likely that this situation will continue, especially if a recession hits.

The increasing workload for HR teams spans recruitment and employee management responsibilities as significant changes in employee expectations, a massive wave of resignations, and lackluster employee engagement plague companies of all sizes - and across industries. 

A survey of 800 HR leaders by Gartner determined that their top five priorities will be improving leader and manager effectiveness, change management, employee experience, recruiting, and the future of work. These priorities will be a continuation of the recruitment trends that have dominated HR industry discussions throughout the year.

To have an impact on recruiting specifically, HR professionals must adapt hiring strategies to enable talent acquisition to continue for critical roles, streamline hiring processes, and stem the tide of resignations and disengagement. 

As a new year dawns, HR professionals will be asking how technology can aid them as they navigate economic headwinds and evolving recruitment trends. Let’s take a look at some of these massive trends that will continue to influence the hiring market to understand how existing recruitment technology solutions can support HR departments.

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Trend 1 - The Normalization of Remote Teams

It is hard to think about the nature of work over the past couple of years without considering remote work. What started as a necessary arrangement has evolved into a strong preference for many employees. This preference is fueling many other recruitment trends employers can’t ignore (e.g., flexible work, digitalization, and a focus on employee well-being and company culture).

An ADP survey of workers in 17 countries found that nearly two-thirds of respondents would consider looking for a new job if required to return to the office full-time. In 2023, we can expect to see more employers offer some form of remote working arrangements (e.g., hybrid working schedules or some fully-remote roles) to fill job vacancies with top talent.

Additionally, the expansion of the gig economy is changing how employers are approaching their staffing needs. With companies struggling to find the right people to complete projects intended to fuel growth, they are increasingly casting a wider net for contract and freelance workers - and forming remote teams to ensure that they get all the talent they need.

As more employers acquiesce to the demands of employees, HR professionals have needed to acquire tech solutions that allow them to conduct virtual hiring, source candidates from more online sources - including social media and freelance platforms, and maintain relationships with all of the candidates in their database through bulk communications features. HR leaders have also focused their technology adoption on tools that enable them to maintain strong employee relations no matter where workers are located.

Integrating solutions with a cloud-based recruitment platform such as an applicant tracking system (ATS) can ensure that the hiring process is streamlined - from the interview stage to onboarding - and that data from skills assessments, performance evaluations, employee training tools, and surveys are consolidated in one central location to make reporting and analysis of department metrics simpler.

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Trend 2 - Diversity, Equity & Inclusion as part of the Employee Value Proposition (EVP)

One of the recruitment trends that has gained greater attention as a result of the pandemic is workplace diversity. With a national focus on social justice in 2020, employers have made commitments that back up their public statements with action. 

This means not only hiring to build a workforce that reflects the communities they serve but also reviewing policies and internal behavior to ensure that employees experience an equitable and inclusive workplace.

Beyond creating an internal initiative, employees expect diversity, equity & inclusion (DE&I) to be embedded into their company’s values, reflected in the business strategy, and visible in how employees interact with each other - and issues are handled. To make this a reality for current and prospective employees, HR teams can leverage technology. 

AI-powered ATS solutions like Manatal enable HR teams to set criteria for sourcing candidates that focus on skills rather than personal attributes that may exclude qualified professionals. All-in-one recruitment solutions also allow HR teams to seamlessly update the language in job listings and on the company career page to reflect their commitment to building an inclusive workplace.

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Trend 3 - The Diversification of Recruitment Sources

The increase in recruitment sources that HR teams can access to find top talent beyond the traditional sources (e.g., career pages, employee referrals, in-person job fairs) is one of many recruitment trends that began before the pandemic and accelerated over the last two years. Among the reasons is that looking beyond the company’s existing network may increase company diversity, and the number of sites can help you cast a wide net for a relatively low cost.

As more recruitment and hiring takes place digitally, the talent pool has expanded for HR teams. This has also increased the number of sources that need to be managed and resumes that need parsing substantially. 

Additionally, social media sites and job portals such as LinkedIn and Glassdoor allow current and former employees to share their feedback on working for an employer publicly, creating potential reputational issues if several negative candidates and employee experiences are being shared.

Recruitment solutions that integrate an ATS with job boards, social media sites, and the company career page reduce the time it takes for HR teams to post new job listings since it can be posted and updated on multiple sites simultaneously. 

HR teams can easily manage the applications received for each listing as candidate resumes are consolidated into profiles in a central location. Data from these sites are also pulled into the platform, which can be analyzed to determine which sources are providing the most successful hires. 

No more switching from one software solution to another to manually post listings, review resumes, or communicate with candidates. These improvements in productivity and efficiency are noticeable - particularly to lean HR teams with tighter budgets.

START NOW: Click here to learn how you can create your first candidate profile with Manatal.

Trend 4 - Skills-based Hiring

Of all the recruitment trends HR departments will face in 2023, skills-based hiring is probably the largest reversal of recruitment practices. For 20 years, adding degree requirements to job descriptions (known as degree inflation) dictated the minimum qualifications that many employers expected from applicants. 

In many industries, the years-long talent shortage severely impacted companies’ abilities to hire all of the employees they need to execute business initiatives. The pandemic helped to intensify the need for dropping these requirements to pave the way for broader talent pools based on a professional’s skills and competencies. 

As a result, skills-based hiring has emerged as a way to attract candidates who may not have the traditional qualifications for a role. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 56% of employers use pre-employment assessments to gauge job applicants' knowledge, skills, and abilities, and more than three-quarters report that the quality of their hires has improved due to these assessments. While there are many jobs that still require formal certifications, this is a promising shift that is likely to continue in 2023.

This move has been supported by the many professionals who experienced job loss during the pandemic and have sought out courses for upskilling or to support a career transition. During this time, LinkedIn, Udemy, Coursera, and other organizations have offered people the opportunity to upskill or change careers without enrolling in a formal college program.

HR teams can utilize their recruitment platform to easily administer skills tests to candidates, which can reduce hiring metrics such as time-to-hire as well as onboarding. Additionally, the recruitment platform stores the assessments for future reference when there are other job vacancies. Additionally, as mentioned above, revised job descriptions that emphasize skills - rather than requirements - can be shared on multiple job sites simultaneously.

HR leaders seeking to improve their hiring outcomes in 2023 will be assessing how they can take part in these recruitment trends. This will require reviewing existing policies, modifying job listings, and revising hiring processes to ensure that recruitment activities are accomplishing their intended goals. A comprehensive recruitment platform like Manatal can support these efforts by consolidating activities and enabling seamless reporting to gauge effectiveness.

Start a 14-Day free trial today to learn how Manatal’s recruitment  software can empower your team as you adopt these trends.