We are approaching the end of another fast-paced and ever-changing recruitment year.
We asked 15 recruitment industry experts to think about how 2023 will go into the history books and what you can take along with you for 2024.
Unsurprisingly, when we asked our experts about the most significant changes in recruitment in 2023, the words popping up in the word cloud were AI, automation and the changes in skills and employer branding.
Let’s dive into what 15 recruitment experts had to say in the 2023 Teamdash survey.
The rise of AI and automation in recruitment
The focus on automation has been evident in the past years, and rightfully so. Recruitment technology is more available, accessible and adaptable than ever.
This year, AI took a considerable step ahead in recruitment and has been incorporated into recruitment software, including Teamdash.
We recently celebrated one year of ChatGPT – the infamous AI tool mentioned at every dinner table this year. ChatGPT and other AI tools are used by both recruiters and candidates, raising concerns about how it affects the recruitment process and how to maintain ethical and human factors in the decision-making.
At Teamdash, our philosophy has always been that the recruiter should be at the steering wheel and in control, and technology is just a vehicle to get there faster, safer and more comfortably. And it should carry on and be transparent in the recruitment performance metrics.
AI is like your co-pilot – you’re in control, giving commands and making the decisions.
Renita Käsper, Global Director of Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding at HRS Group
Talent acquisition and recruitment has been a relatively early adopter of Artificial Intelligence. AI helps recruiters to work smarter, not harder, automate repetitive tasks, make it faster and easier to source candidates, write job ads, launch employer branding campaigns, and engage with candidates, to name just a few. AI continues to evolve and automate day-to-day tasks. Recruiters may be able to take a lot of repetitive things off their plates and focus on the more human aspects of recruiting.
Keter Luhaorg, Recruitment Partner at Euronics
I began using multiple AI-powered tools in recruitment, always ensuring ethical practices, of course. Learning the necessary prompts not only made my job easier, but also proved incredibly fascinating. Embracing ethical AI tools completely transformed my approach to recruitment: Automated Resume Screening: swiftly matching candidate qualifications with job requirements. Chatbot assistance: guides candidates, answers FAQs, and schedules interviews seamlessly.
Danas Venclovas, Head of Talent Acquisition at Luminor Group
In 2023, we experienced the growth of the need to headhunt talents rather than fill the roles of actively applying people. At the same time, the increased flow of applying candidates seemed like a positive change, but actually, it did more work in terms of the need to reply to everyone, assess each profile’s suitability to the role and send more rejection emails.
The efficiency boost that the AI and automation tools provided allowed us to make the process faster and more consistent. We achieved an improvement in the Time to Hire metric and the drop in Voluntary Turnover, and, at the same time – an increase in employee NPS.
Lauryna Gireniene, Head of Talent Acquisition at Nord Security
In 2023 our hiring rate from applicants increased by 25% – to increase hiring rates, you need to ensure the best candidate experience by using automations and AI.
Tools you need for successful recruitment in 2024
Recruiters without up-to-date tools and software have a clear disadvantage compared to the ones who have adopted a comprehensive tech stack.
All the experts who responded to our survey mentioned having a good and modern ATS as the first must-have tool in 2024.
Teamdash is recruitment software built by recruiters for recruiters, and we know how frustrating it is working with technology that doesn’t fit your workflows.
That’s why Teamdash is highly customisable and includes various automation possibilities and (AI-powered) tools that make your work easier – an interview scheduler, a job ad landing page tool, the inclusive language checker, AI-powered Candidate Summaries and video interviewing options, to name a few. The recruitment dashboard gives you a birds-eye overview of your entire recruitment process. The Recruitment Performance tab gives you a visual overview of essential recruitment metrics so you can be more strategic in your everyday work.
We covered choosing the right ATS for your needs and company at one of our webinars in 2023. You can watch it on demand on Livestorm.
Having the right tools helps us adapt to the market changes we witnessed in 2023 and be proactive in 2024. Here are some recommendations from our experts:
Hiie-Liin Tamm, Recruitment Lead at Scoro
My must-have tools are Good ATS, Chat GPT (or similar), and LinkedIn.
Jane Pettit, Business Growth Coach and Recruitment Team Trainer at Centred Excellence
For recruiters in 2024, must-have tools include advanced AI-driven Applicant Tracking Systems, sophisticated candidate assessment software, diverse and inclusive job advertising platforms, data analytics tools for talent acquisition insights, and virtual reality interfaces for immersive candidate experiences, emphasising efficiency, fairness, and engagement in the recruitment process.
Piret Ulm, Partner Relations Lead at TalentHub
I personally believe you will fall too far behind the curve if you do not make AI work for you. There are still too many recruiters not taking full advantage of technology. You do not have to master them all, but get a good grounding on prompts and validation as a minimum. AI is as reliable as Wikipedia – you need to do the fact-check.
Danas Venclovas, Head of Talent Acquisition at Luminor Group
ATS, Magical Text Expander, DeepL, Grammarly, and templates to make daily tasks faster.
Rethinking and redesigning your employer brand to adapt to the changes
The nature of work and the expectations towards the workplace and employer have significantly shifted in the past years. There is also a generational change in the workforce – Gen Z is entering the workforce as a part of the Boomer generation is retiring.
To keep up and exceed these expectations and keep hiring and retaining top talent, employers have to rethink their employer brand and offering. At our end-of-the-year webinar, Kaarel Holm from MeetFrank shared that the Pareto principle applies in their user base – 20% of the best employers get 80% of the applicants. No employer wants to miss out on hiring the best talent.
To become one of the best, transparency is expected throughout all phases of the talent strategy. This means leveraging the right technology and tools to support human competencies and building a strong employer brand based on them.
Diversity (DEI), flexibility, transparency and the rise of relatable organisations are the keywords in focus for employer brands in 2024.
Molly Johnson-Jones, CEO & Co-founder at Flexa
We’ve seen a lot of change throughout 2023.
- Firstly, the demand for the office on a flexible basis has made a comeback. While fully remote and remote-first opportunities remain dominant amongst jobseekers, hybrid roles are becoming increasingly popular.
Our Q3 Flexible Working Index (a report which tracks evolving trends across the flexible jobs market) revealed a sharp shift away from remote work amongst employers – fully remote roles accounted for just 4% of job posts between July and September, on average.
Meanwhile, jobseekers’ demand for remote work remains strong, but our data shows that the more flexibility companies offer staff around working locations, the more popular they are amongst candidates.
- Secondly, the traditional work week has significantly evolved over the past year.
The classic Mon-Fri is taking a backseat. More and more companies are introducing an alternative approach, which includes variations of the 4-day week, the 4.5-day week, and the 9-day fortnight.
Demand for the 4-day work week has skyrocketed, with an average of 47.4% of Flexa users listing it as their preferred way of working during October. During the same period, 37.5% selected the 4.5-day week as their preference, and 14.1% stated the 9-day fortnight was theirs.
Kayleigh Little, Recruitment Automation Expert at Teamdash
Maintaining your employer brand whilst recruitment is low is KEY! You need to be constantly sharing things with your audience so when recruitment picks back up you are not essentially starting from scratch. Technology will allow you to truly make data-driven decisions whilst being able to track candidates, elevate your employer branding and master recruitment marketing.
Recruiter skillset in 2024
In recent years, we have seen a lift in skill- and value-based hiring. Companies are now actively upskilling their current workforce and hiring new employees to fill the skill gaps.
This also means recruiters must adapt their skills to match the requirements. Recruiters need a mix of excellent soft skills and hard skills to be successful in 2024 and beyond. A successful recruiter in 2024 is a great communicator and facilitator who knows how to sell the role and the company, works with data and statistics to think strategically, and adapts quickly to the changes in the market.
Again, proactively working on developing these skills further and using technology helps stay on top of the recruitment game.
In the past few years, we have seen recruitment becoming more and more strategic and data-driven. HR professionals have become the leaders of this shift and the new talent strategies.
We’re happy to see that Teamdash users are actively working with the data available for them in the Recruitment performance tab and have made checking it a part of their daily routine. This has helped them find new ways to streamline the process and automate tedious tasks, making more time for activities that create value.
The new skillset aligns with the challenges that 2023 has brought and will carry on to 2024.
- We have seen an increase in the number of candidates but still have difficulties getting enough qualified candidates;
- We need to cut or manage recruitment costs to stay on top of the economic situation in the world;
- For stronger employer brands, we need better communication across companies, and collaboration with hiring managers is especially important.
Riin Soostar, Senior HR Business Partner at Circle K Eesti
It is important to automate as much administrative work as possible so the recruitment process is as efficient and high-quality as possible. Recruiting is getting more technical with every year. I´d say that a good recruiter must keep up with the trends, know the target group, and know how to reach out to them. Also, there has to be a bit of a salesman in every recruiter, in a good way.
Piret Luts, Global Head of Talent Analytics, Sourcing & Research at Nortal AS
The most important skills for a recruiter in 2024 are:
- Business partnering and consultancy skills. The ability to engage in meaningful discussions and forge partnerships with hiring managers and stakeholders is paramount. We must first cultivate a wealth of business acumen and skills within ourselves to truly function as invaluable business partners. It involves understanding our business goals, preemptively building talent pools, and avoiding last-minute firefighting. Stepping into an intake call with talent market mapping results guides the conversation. It aligns expectations at the right level, making the next steps more enjoyable for ourselves, hiring managers, and candidates.
- Data-fueled processes and decision-making: While the discourse around data-driven processes has persisted, few have wholeheartedly embraced these principles. Predicting what’s ahead of us becomes a crucial skill among TA professionals and helps us build meaningful partnerships with our stakeholders. The upcoming years signal a tangible shift, demanding fundamental change when it comes to time-based metrics, but not only. Integrating Talent Analytics and Talent Intelligence into resource planning is becoming the standard even before recruitment activities commence. Balancing the internal and external perspectives ensures that we keep up with changes and stay half a step ahead. As the data topic needs to expand, storytelling skills take centre stage—because data holds a crucial story, and we are in the lead of writing the narrative around this.
Natalja Horohordina, Head of Talent Acquisition at Eesti Energia
Recruiters must embrace and leverage recruitment automation, build assessment skills, and increase internal mobility in 2024. Recruiters need to understand their teams’ skills and capabilities in-depth to build a comprehensive team’s assessment picture.
Lara Holding-Jones, Director at Pink Jelly People Consultancy
Assessment skills will become increasingly important as candidates use AI tools to create increasingly strong CVs.
What will 2024 bring into recruiting?
We will see how many of these trends and challenges mentioned carry over to 2024.
One thing is for sure: AI and automation will play an assisting role for recruiters – personalised communication, and the human factor will always remain the leading players for both recruiters and candidates.
We are excited to see in which direction AI and technology will take us in 2024.
The end-of-the-year webinar “Key trends and changes in recruitment for 2024” was an insightful session with statistics and expert predictions from MeetFrank’s Co-Founder Kaarel Holm and The Talent Hunter Vanessa Raath. It is available on demand on Livestorm.
Piret Luts, Global Head of Talent Analytics, Sourcing & Research at Nortal AS
2023 has left many talent acquisition teams lean. Recruitment teams and professionals need to learn and reevaluate how to deliver more with less. Balancing the demands of business needs while ensuring personal well-being is essential to combat the pervasive challenge of recruitment burnout in the year ahead. Remember, it’s important that your cup is full as well.
The second one would be trust. 2023 was notorious for the number of layoffs, I feel that there is a growing deficit of trust from the candidates side. Therefore, companies need to be mindful of building their authentic employer brands inside out and taking good care of their current employees. Prioritizing the well-being and engagement of current employees becomes not just a corporate responsibility but a strategic imperative to rebuild and fortify trust in the hiring landscape.
Molly Johnson-Jones, CEO & Co-founder at Flexa
As attitudes and understanding continue to sway in the right direction, I hope 2024 will bring much more transparency and utilisation of employer branding. Both go hand-in-hand and are extremely important to successfully hiring and retaining top talent – especially as they help build trust among candidates and employees.
And there’s so much data to back this up. For example, LinkedIn’s Employer Brand statistics state that 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even applying for a job.
In a survey of 1,000 employees, Visier found that 90% trust their employer. When asked why, 65% said, “They generally tell me the truth”, 52% said, “They’re transparent about company policies and practices”, and 38% said, “They encourage employees to speak up”.
And data from Deloitte revealed that trusted companies outperform their peers by up to 400%!
Vanessa Raath, Founder of The Talent Hunter
There is a lot of disruption from generative AI. We are going to see good recruiters using AI to make their jobs easier and streamline a lot of their menial, admin-intensive tasks in 2024. We are also going to see a lot of lazy recruiters badly using Generative AI tools. We must remember that no one speaks like ChatGPT, so we cannot just regurgitate content and pass it off as our own. Personalisation will be key for us to remain Human.
Hiie-Liin Tamm, Recruitment Lead at Scoro
- More automation in recruitment: Using more AI in recruitment to support manual tasks and improve candidate experience with a more personal approach.
- Pay transparency: being more transparent about pay is gaining a lot of popularity; companies need to prepare to be able to meet the requirements of the European Parliament Pay Transparency Directive.
- More talent is available: Due to lots of layoffs and instability in the tech sector, there’s more talent available. So companies who can hire now have the possibility of having very high-quality people who are loyal to them.
- DEI in hiring: companies emphasise diversity recruitment and unconscious bias.
Lauryna Gireniene, Head of Talent Acquisition at Nord Security
Businesses are coming back on track, so I believe there will be more volume in recruitment, as well as higher turnover, because of AI integration into organisations and global remote or hybrid work challenges.
Eglė Poškienė, Founder & HR consultant at Recharge Talent
- More focus on internal talent
- The continuing importance of diversity and equity, especially caring for more neglected diversity aspects, such as age diversity
- A more individualised and personalised approach
Sophie Power, Advisor at Sophie Power Recruits Limited
2024 will bring a complete overhaul of how the industry works combined with the challenge of recovering from the economic turbulence of 2023.
Book a free consultation to see how Teamdash can help you in 2024 and beyond
Thank you again to all of our experts who shared their insights from 2023 and helped us think ahead about what the new year in recruiting will bring.
🔮 We’ll see in about 365 days what changed and happened in 2024.
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