Table of Contents: 2025 Recruiting Predictions
“How did we get here?” 2025 Recruiting Predictions
Before I get into what trends I’ve seen leading into 2025, I need to dial back a few years to show you how we’ve arrived at our current state. As we all know, the world “stopped” in March 2020, forcing companies and businesses at large to suddenly rely on digital solutions to continue business.
This triggered a rush to hire technology experts. This mass talent grab began with the technology industry. From the second half of 2020 and well into 2021, companies fiercely competed with each other, throwing copious amounts of money and resources into building their technology teams as quickly as possible to meet the demands of conducting business online.
Companies outside of the technology sector were also forced to compete for this talent and adapt to this dramatically altered business landscape in which every company was compelled to become digital or fail.
The Mass Scramble to Attract Talent: 2020-2021
To attract top talent, companies across all industries were forced to be as competitive as technology companies regarding employee benefits like compensation, work flexibility, insurance packages, signing bonuses, and other onboarding perks.
Candidates were 100% in the driver’s seat to make demands. During this era, companies acted reactively, and tended to overhire to keep up with the competition. Then, toward the end of 2021 and early 2022, the pandemic restrictions lifted and the economy started to react to all the recent disruptions and changes.
Post Pandemic Economic Blues: Late 2022-Early 2024
Towards the end of 2022 and into 2023, macro-economic trends like skyrocketing inflation and surges in the cost of living hit most sectors with decreasing sales and higher operating expenses. The companies that overhired employees in 2020-2021 had to cut back on expenses, which involved a high number of layoffs. The technology sector spearheaded this trend, laying off employees in the four and five figure ranges.
This time period was marked with much fear about skyrocketing inflation rates, a potential recession, and an overall uncertainty regarding the geopolitical climate. In just a few months, it felt like most companies “hit the pause button” on hiring and spending. This had a ripple effect into the recruitment industry, slowing down the rate at which companies hired and built teams.
Starkly contrasting the pandemic hiring boom, companies were not as aggressive at building teams and nurturing talent pipelines in this era. This lasted for around 12-18 months between 2022-2023 and even into the first six months of 2024.
Cautious Optimism: 2024 into 2025
Into the later half of 2024, economic conditions started to change in positive ways. Inflation has come down and signs are pointing to an avoidance of a recession. In addition, there seems to be more stability globally.
These trends point to employers becoming more confident and open to proactively building talent pipelines, with plans to future-proof their workforce with vetted, qualified candidates. Instead of being predominantly reactive to economic shifts, more companies are preparing for the future with cautious optimism. In short, I’ve seen a gradual ramping up of more companies coming forward to find out who’s who in their sector.
Getting ahead of the Competition with AI Hiring
This uptick in requests for business intelligence is partly driven by an increased interest in preparing for a future in which AI is integrated with everything we do. While there is a cautious optimism, there is also a real fear about not investing in the future. Into 2025, AI is transforming the way we do business once again. This year and into the next, whether they like it or not, every company will need to become a technology company.
Every company will need to integrate AI technology into their operations to stay competitive, and they need to invest in it and have expertise in this area now. To achieve this, they need to bring in more AI experts.
I’m seeing companies make investments in those specific functions across the board. From the momentum I’ve seen, we can predict a 5-15% increase in companies hiring for these technology functions into 2025 (based on a 12-18 month timeframe from the end of 2024).
The Role of Tech in 2025 Recruiting Predictions
I’ve seen how useful technology can be to keep recruiters organized, as well as to save time. And though AI and other technologies are indeed game changers, there is still nothing that beats human driven initiatives in recruiting.
While we use technology in our research, it is integral to engage with live sources to validate and provide deeper and more robust results. There is simply no substitute for the quality results we achieve through calling into companies and speaking with real people.
Therefore, I foresee recruiters offering the best quantitative and qualitative recruitment results in 2025 through the assistance of technology paired with the accuracy and discernment of verification by humans.
Attrition and Retention on Top of Mind
I agree with recent observations of companies placing a larger priority on preventing talent attrition. In a landscape in which we are losing a significant volume of experienced employees from the Baby Boomer generation due to retirement, companies need to safeguard their talent to maintain operations.
I predict a stronger emphasis on organizations hiring larger internal teams that are specifically responsible for engaging with current employees to keep attrition rates low.
These teams would not just be for hiring or succession planning, but will directly manage and invest in talent already in their ranks. Considering the high cost of replacing workers. Making sure that employees are engaged and fulfilled can prevent costly skill gaps and make the most of the investments already made into hiring talent.
A Greater Emphasis on Brand
Another thing we have observed is that workers are increasingly selective about the companies they join. Brand image and company culture are extremely important. These days, a job is not just a job, it is part of your identity. For whom you work is reflected in the kind of person you want to be and represents your values.
Today’s talent, especially members of Gen Z, wants to feel good about their company’s brand and its respective work culture. They are not automatically allied to companies by default like former generations, but they want to believe in their employer’s culture and ensure that it aligns with their professional identity.
Having an excellent brand image and building a positive company culture, especially one that prioritizes mental health and a work-life balance, will be key to employers attracting top talent into 2025.
Clients Want to Know What Attracts Talent
In addition to preventing attrition, there is a renewed focus about learning what benefits and pay scales attract top talent. Intelligence we are asked to provide includes what qualified candidates are willing to do in a role, what excites them about a new opportunity, and what benefits they desire.
There is also a heightened interest about obtaining intelligence on what other competitor companies are offering. With this information, our clients can make sure they meet or exceed their competition and make attractive offers to top talent.
While some of my clients are not ready to hire at the moment, they want to understand their future leaders. They want to have benefits packages and compensation offers that are in line with the expectations of top talent. Our ability to develop candidates and research other companies’ benefits greatly assists with this endeavor.
Being Prepared for Future Hiring Needs
When it is time to make an offer to fill an open position, our clients can speak with these candidates who are already primed for a serious conversation. It will not be a “cold call”, but rather a more seamless process where the individual is known to the company and vice versa.
Companies looking for a competitive edge will lean into building candidate pools and gaining competitive intelligence. If they are not doing this, you can bet that their competitors probably are.
An Uptick in Building Candidate Pipelines
Now that more companies have future hiring needs on top of mind, I have started to have more conversations with clients about building candidate pipelines. This prepped and primed list of interested and qualified candidates proves invaluable when one needs to be agile in hiring for a key role. Requests for this service have definitely ramped up compared to the post-pandemic slump of late 2022 and 2023.
More companies want to be aware of the talent in the marketplace because they know by 2025, they will need more management level leaders in place to enact their business goals. We have noticed more savvy companies being proactive again, but with one major difference: they are more selective than they were during the pandemic hiring scramble.
Getting More Granular
Today’s clients requesting candidate pipelines have more targeted criteria regarding skill sets, experience, work location and volume of names compared to the pandemic era. Instead of asking for a list of 2,000 potential hires, they want a more refined list of 200 names who are vetted and verified for their interest with a specific skill set.
By having a more granular list in which the contacts are already known and are aware of the client’s interest in their expertise, onboarding in the future is likely to be simpler and more expeditious. Having had an initial conversation, this talent pool is primed for faster onboarding in the event of a job opening.
We are glad to maintain a curated list of talent on behalf of our clients, delivering data when they need it the most.
2025 Recruiting Predictions from Mitch Golob
Whether you’re an in-house talent acquisition specialist, a recruiter at an executive search firm, or a manager looking for a better way to source candidates, knowing the recruitment landscape will help you make the best choices. If you have any questions, our team at Corporate Navigators is just a phone call away.
Regards,
Mitch Golob, President of Corporate Navigators
