2024 Recruitment Trends Unveiled

Employers, are you ready for 2024? As we approach the new year, it's timely for businesses to align their recruitment and talent strategies with the upcoming trends in the recruiting landscape for 2024.

What's on the horizon for recruitment in 2024?

For employers, 2024 signals a shift towards proactive recruitment strategies rather than reactive ones. The emphasis will be on creating and managing talent pipelines for current and future job openings. Larger enterprises with in-house recruitment and talent acquisition teams will proactively seek candidates with skills and competencies expected to be crucial for the business in the future. Here are the key trends to watch out for:

Proactive Candidate Engagement

Proactively engaging candidates has long been a common practice for filling executive roles, but the landscape is evolving. According to a recent LinkedIn survey, 84% of recruiters acknowledge the growing importance of engaging passive candidates (those currently employed and not actively job-hunting) to attract top talent for lower and middle-level positions.

Use of Recruitment Technology and Automation

In 2024, we anticipate a greater reliance on automation among medium to large firms to streamline repetitive tasks and reduce administrative work. The consensus among recruiting professionals and business leaders is that investing in recruitment tools such as Applicant Tracking Systems (ATSs) and Recruitment CRM, along with other technologies, is the optimal way to enhance recruitment performance.

Diversity and Inclusion

Business leaders across the globe recognise the role of a culturally diverse workforce in fostering innovation, creativity, and higher profitability. While currently, only 1 in 3 organisations track the diversity of candidates, 2024 is expected to witness a shift in this ratio. Job seekers, particularly the younger generations (Gen Z and Millennials), emphasise the importance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts when considering potential employers. Due to the increased inclination of candidates towards diversity and inclusion, larger companies are increasingly investing in diversity and inclusion efforts. So, companies and organisations generally will have to invest in innovative candidate evaluation tools designed to eliminate bias in recruiting and hiring.

Employer Branding

The significance of employer branding is growing. Companies must position themselves as organisations that care about the well-being and development of their employees. Even smaller teams must make this a priority, as prospective employees in 2024 will expect a focus on their well-being during the recruitment process.

Data-Centric Recruiting

The use of data in recruiting is not new, for a long time, larger employers have used data to help make sound business decisions. However, the evolving trend is towards advanced technology for more precise hiring decisions. This has led to a change in focus from grades or experience to the candidate’s overall persona.

Strategic metrics like recruitment spend, time to fill, candidates per hire, or offer acceptance rate will still be important to track your recruitment processes. However, future recruiting will revolve more around strategic metrics that measure the business outcomes of companies’ recruitment efforts, not just the daily actions taken. Developing your company’s talent strategy will be just as important as executing it. 

Transformation of Recruiters into Business Leaders

Buckle up if you have a recruitment team in-house! In the future, recruiters will look more and more like HR business partners.

Up to now, in most organisations, recruiters are order-takers and admin-focused. But this is changing, as employers are now being clued in to the fact that value-added recruiting teams play a significant role in the company’s ultimate financial performance. Recruitment, talent acquisition, resourcing, however you call it, will increasingly be recognized as a strategic role. Recruitment leaders and recruiters will be expected to bring a perspective, push back, and lead the way forward. That means aligning with the organisation’s business goals and advising hiring managers on the best way to achieve them. 

In-house recruitment functions will become more creative and complex as the most administrative and routine parts of work become automated. It will be less about execution and more about talent strategy. The recruiters will be responsible for anticipating hiring managers’ needs, solving their problems, and spotting opportunities for them.

Recruiters will take on a more strategic role, aligning with business goals and advising hiring managers. As automation handles routine tasks, recruiters will focus on talent strategy, anticipating needs, solving problems, and identifying opportunities.

Pay Transparency

The gender pay gap has been a persistent issue despite equal pay legislation being in place for over 50 years. To combat this, pay transparency has become an increasingly important part of HR legislation, with new laws being introduced in many jurisdictions since 2022.

This trend is expected to continue into 2024 and beyond. Currently, several countries such as Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Iceland, Lithuania, the UK, and the US have already implemented pay transparency legislation or policies. Other governments, including the European Union (EU), are in the process of enacting similar measures.

Nine different legislative measures related to pay transparency have been recently identified, including access to pay information, requiring employers to disclose individual pay information to employees, advertising salary information in job postings, prohibiting employers from requesting salary history, creating an independent body to provide equal pay certification, obliging enterprises to publish gender and pay information, regular audits on gender and pay, undertaking pay assessments, and promoting equal pay discussions during collective bargaining. As such, pay transparency is becoming an increasingly important issue for employers to pay attention to in order to comply with legislation and promote gender-neutral pay.

The Great Resignation Continues

The trend of the Great Resignation is showing no signs of slowing down. A recent PwC survey indicates that as the cost of living rises, more workers are seeking better-paying jobs, with 26% planning to change jobs next year, up from 19% last year. This global trend poses significant implications for employers, especially SMEs. Competition for skilled candidates will intensify, requiring companies to refine their sourcing strategies and enhance their ability to attract and engage suitable candidates for their roles.

The need for higher pay and improved work-life balance, highlighted by the survey, will require employers to seek to understand their specific employee value proposition. By aligning job offerings with candidate expectations, employers can attract the best talent and retain a competitive edge in the evolving job market.

Gig Work and Gig Economy

The gig economy's popularity will continue to rise, impacting how companies approach recruitment and talent acquisition.

Entry of Gen Z into the Workforce

As Gen Z prepares to enter the workforce in junior-level roles, the major shift they bring is a preference for virtual and fast-paced processes. Employers must adapt by embracing recruitment automation, mobile-optimised application processes, and continuous candidate engagement at every step of the hiring stage.

Shift from Candidate-Driven to Employer<-Candidate Driven Market

With increasing demand for specific skill sets and high inflation rates, an interesting dynamic has emerged: workers and employers alike find themselves in a position of influence. In most industries, wage growth has surged, indicating increased bargaining power for employees. However, economic uncertainty and rising costs give employers leverage as well. In this evolving landscape, prioritising retention has become paramount, with employers recognising the importance of flexible work options, salary increases, bonuses, benefits, and training.

Engaging employees on a personal level is now a critical aspect of the employee experience, as only a fraction of workers are currently fully engaged in their roles. Furthermore, fostering a harmonious corporate culture that values collaboration and communication is essential in this new dynamic, where both parties hold significant sway in shaping the work environment. By embracing these shifts, employers and employees can forge a stronger, mutually beneficial relationship that celebrates and rewards their contributions.

In conclusion, while businesses will continue to face plenty of uncertainty as they have done in 2023, awareness of these recruitment trends in the coming year will help them hire the right talent to better capitalise on the opportunities presented in 2024. By focusing on proactive engagement, advanced screening, flexible workplaces, D&I, and data-centric recruiting, smart companies will work to gain and retain a competent workforce in the face of a general talent shortage.