Recruitment Cycle – What It Looks Like for 2023

The world of recruitment is always changing and evolving. What worked yesterday may not work today, and what works today may not work tomorrow. As recruiters, it’s our job to stay on top of the latest trends to be as effective as possible in attracting top talent.

As the year comes to a close, it’s time to start thinking about the future—specifically, the future of recruitment. What will the next year bring?

2023 Will Be More Candidate-Centric

Candidate-Centricity: In today’s candidate-driven market, the most successful organizations put their candidates first. In 2023, this trend will only continue to grow. Candidates will increasingly expect a personalized, seamless, and positive experience throughout the entire recruiting process.

This is a marked shift in focus from employer branding to candidate experience. In 2023, this trend will continue to grow as more and more companies realize that happy candidates make for happy employees. To meet this demand, more companies will be investing in technologies that improve the candidate experience, such as chatbots and AI-powered job recommenders. Also, look to executives to begin altering compensation since that is the priority for today’s candidates, according to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends, October 2022 report. Also on the list? Balance, flexibility, and upskilling.

Stay on top of the latest trends to be as effective as possible in attracting #TopTalent going into 2023: Share on X

Increased Budget for Recruitment Marketing

Recruitment Marketing: According to recent data from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the average cost per hire is around $4,700, and that number will only increase. You need to market your organization just like any other product or service to attract top talent. This means creating a brand that candidates can identify with and using targeted marketing campaigns to reach your ideal candidates.

Many companies are adopting recruitment marketing strategies traditionally used by consumer brands. This means using data and analytics to target potential candidates with personalized messages across multiple channels (including social media, email, and even TV). In 2020, 86% of HR managers stated that recruitment is weaving with marketing, and the two disciplines will get even deeper in 2023.

Hybrid Work Models Transform the Recruiting Landscape

Hybrid Working: With more and more people working remotely, the lines between work and home are becoming blurred. In 2023, we expect to see more organizations offering hybrid working arrangements that allow employees to mix and match remote and office-based work. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced many companies to reevaluate their remote work policies.

As a result, hybrid working arrangements are becoming more popular, with employees split between working from home and the office on a regular basis. According to Forbes, 83% of workers prefer hybrid work, so this trend is here to stay, so expect to see more companies offering flexible working arrangements in 2023 and beyond.

Employers May Begin Reducing Workdays

Reduced Work Days: The traditional 9-5 workday is no longer feasible for many people, especially those with families or other commitments outside of work. In response, an increasing number of companies are experimenting with reduced work days (such as 4 days per week or 6 hours per day). This trend will likely continue as employers strive to strike a better balance between work and life.

While not a new idea, more companies are implementing 4-day work weeks, including Microsoft Japan which reported a 40% increase in productivity as a result of their test. With efforts to improve work/life balance and increase productivity top of mind for employers, we expect to see more organizations experimenting with reduced work days or even four-day work weeks in 2023.

Show Them The Money (Literally, It’s the Law)

Managing New Rules Around Compensation: With the rise of gig economy workers and the continued growth of the freelance workforce, there will be new challenges around managing compensation in 2023. As the gig economy continues to grow, so too do the number of rules and regulations around compensation. In 2023, expect to see more companies struggling to keep up with these changes and managing their compensation strategies accordingly. This will be especially challenging for companies operating in multiple countries with different laws and regulations.

“Employers are mindful of these concerns and are providing more pay transparency to help set expectations with job seekers. About 19% of U.S. companies surveyed by Willis Towers Watson are planning to disclose pay-range information, and another 43% are considering doing so. About 17% of companies already list salaries in cities and states where they’re not required to do so by law. In Europe, the EU Parliament is pushing for companies with at least 50 employees to be required to provide more pay transparency.”

– Lydia Abbot, LinkedIn Talent Leaders Discuss Hiring in 2023

With new rules around compensation set to go into effect in 2023, companies will need to adapt their recruiting strategies accordingly. These rules will impact how companies can offer incentives and bonuses to candidates, so it’s important that you’re up-to-date on them. Failure to comply with the new rules could result in hefty fines, so ensure you’re prepared before they go into effect.

Strategic Use of Automation

Recruitment Process Automation: To streamline the recruiting process and free up time for recruiters to focus on more strategic tasks, we expect to see a continued increase in the use of recruitment process automation (RPA) in 2023.

To stay ahead of the competition, your organization needs to recruit smarter, not harder. One way to do this is to implement recruitment process automation. Recruitment process automation is the use of software to automate repetitive tasks in the recruitment process, like posting job ads, screening resumes, conducting first-round interviews, and scheduling second-round interviews. Here’s how to get started:

• Identify which tasks in your recruitment process are repetitive and time-consuming
• Determine which tool is best suited for automating those tasks
• Nominate a stakeholder to be responsible for managing and monitoring the RPA system

Recruitment automation can help you improve your candidate experience by making it easier and faster for candidates to apply for jobs and schedule interviews. Additionally, automating some recruitment tasks can help you reduce costs by eliminating the need to hire additional staff to perform repetitive tasks. All this helps you improve your time-to-hire by automating time-consuming tasks in the recruitment process.

As 2023 is fast approaching, stay ahead of the competition with these #RecruitingTrends from @Visage_Jobs: Share on X

Crowdsourced Souring Will Unearth More Diverse Candidates

Crowdsourced Sourcing: In 2023, we expect to see more organizations leveraging crowdsourced sourcing methods. With the rise of social media and online job boards, sourcing candidates is easier than ever before. However, this also means that competition for top talent is higher than ever. To stay ahead of the competition, expect more companies to turn to crowdsourced sourcing platforms like Visage in 2023.

These platforms allow businesses to tap into a global network of recruiters and sourcers to find the best candidates for their open roles quickly and efficiently. Crowdsourced sourcing is a relatively new concept that we expect will take off in a big way in 2023. This can save recruiters time and energy, making it an attractive option for busy companies.

Skills Pay the Bills in Recruitment

Skill-Based Recruitment: As the war for talent continues to heat up, we expect organizations will place an increased emphasis on skill-based recruiting in 2023. This means assessing candidates based on their skills and abilities rather than their resume or job history alone. In today’s competitive job market, it’s not enough to just have a degree from a good school; employers are looking for candidates with specific skill sets that can help them achieve their business goals. As a result, skill-based recruitment is becoming increasingly popular, especially in industries like tech, where specific skill sets are always in high demand.

“Companies are focusing a lot more on their internal labor market and thinking about how they can take high-performing employees and move them into positions where they need them more, so thinking about upskilling programs as part of an internal mobility strategy is really important,”

– Research Director Jamie Kohn, Gartner HR

Data Will Continue Its Rise to the Top

Data-Driven Decision-Making: With access to ever-growing amounts of data, organizations will need to become more data-driven in their approach to recruiting to make better decisions about who they hire. Data-driven teams tend to operate more effectively with lower costs, making them more productive and adding more value to the organization.

There are many advantages to using a data-driven approach to recruitment. Perhaps the most obvious is that it enables you to make better decisions. When you have data to support your choices, you can be confident that you’re making the right call.

Recruiters and hiring managers are also more confident with the selection process because they have actual data to prove they’ve made the right choice. This leads to improved morale and fewer bad hires and can lead to improved retention rates and lower turnover costs. We anticipate this will be increasingly important as recession concerns grow over the next year.

CX/EX Will Take Center Stage

Employee Experience: Just like candidates have come to expect a great customer experience from brands, they will also expect a great employee experience from their employers. According to  TalentLyft, a good experience motivates 97% of candidates to refer others, and over 50% of candidates would even share a positive experience on social media. On the flip side, a negative hiring experience would compel more than 50% of candidates not to purchase a company’s products or services, says social recruiting platform CareerArc. Poor CX/EX can cost in other ways as well. Take Virgin Media, which found poor candidate experience cost them as much as $5.4 million a year.

A bad candidate experience can damage a company’s reputation, making it harder to attract top talent. When candidates have negative experiences, they’re likely to tell their friends and family about it—and that word-of-mouth can quickly snowball into reputational damage that’s hard to recover from. In 2023, we expect candidate and employee experience will become a key differentiator for organizations competing for top talent.

2023 is just around the corner, and with it come a slew of changes in how companies will recruit top talent. From a more candidate-centric focus to an increased use of recruitment marketing, businesses will need to adapt their strategies to stay ahead of the curve. If you’re looking to get ahead of the game, make sure to read our predictions for 2023 and share your thoughts with us!