Recruiting Predictions & Hiring Trends 2023
As the owner of one of the top executive resume and job search coaching companies, I eat, sleep and breathe employment data & career content. I often get asked to make predictions about trends I think will emerge in the career space. I’m predicting the 3F’s — fractional, flexible, and fastidious. We will see a rise in fractional leadership and side hustles, job candidates will continue to seek flexibility as a primary job perk, and companies will be fastidious about hiring only the strongest employees.
I reached out to a few of my favorite career colleagues and recruiting leaders to get their predictions and trending observations for “Recruiting & Hiring Trends to Expect in 2023”. Here are what the experts think:
Talent and hiring trends to keep an eye on in 2023
Fractional Leadership Roles
We will continue to see an increase in fractional leadership roles (fractional CMO/CFO). The world of work is rapidly changing, and organizations will need strong executive “utility players” to fill in the gaps *and* to test out leaders before betting on their future in the organization.
At the executive level, as the fractional movement grows, I predict there will be agencies that grow a stable of fractional CxOs who have been vetted and are “on the bench” to get “called up” when the needs arise.
Gina Riley, Career Coach at Gina Riley Consulting
We will continue to see a u-shaped employment demand—1 end will be increased demand in service and health sectors and 1 end will increased demand for specialized skills and trades. The middle will be a bottoming of opportunities for remote and hybrid roles—less roles and more candidates.
Rob Kim, Career Strategist
I anticipate a rise in hiring consultants/contract workers. When companies need to tighten their belts, they can save by outsourcing talent and bypassing FTE benefits.
Virginia Franco, Executive Resume Writer at Virginia Franco Resumes
Hiring & Recruiting
Managers will be running leaner teams, and when they *do* get to add FTEs, they may be slower to make a decision. Hiring managers may be looking for unicorn candidates who can wear multiple hats. Be prepared for interviews that could take weeks and for jobs to disappear without being filled.
I think we’ll see more thoughtful approaches to identifying the business need of a given role and how it will contribute to ROI versus quickly posting a backfill for someone who just left (for instance).
For candidates, it will be increasingly important to articulate the value you bring to an organization in terms of money made or saved.
Scotty John, Technical Recruiter
Much to candidates’ chagrin, companies will continue to use online hiring tools like HireVue to conduct interviews. When times are lean, companies tend to cut their recruitment staff first. Video interviews are an easy way for companies to shorten their time with candidates and streamline the hiring process.
I believe that the interview process will get even longer and more tedious. Right now a candidate will be brought in for about 2-3 interviews on average. I predict that companies will extend their interview processes to more like 4-5 interviews because they will highly scrutinize every hire due to tighter budgets.
Bogdan Zlatkov, Founder of GrowthHackYourCareer.com
Flexible Work
Flexible work wasn’t just a pandemic trend. New research from CareerBuilder found that jobs allowing employees to work from home full or part-time saw seven times more applications than in-person roles.
I predict a continued growth of work-from-home and hybrid roles for employees. This creates a need for additional training for leaders on how to engage both on and off-site employees, facilitate meetings, and team collaboration.
Monica Bourgeau, Future of Work consultant
Employers will also need to consider, test, and offer new ways of working, including shorter work weeks, increased flexibility for employees, self-managing teams, and more hybrid roles to stay competitive in the labor market and to create a culture where people can actually thrive.
Quiet Quitters
You will see a rise in former “quiet quitters” trying to “noisily get noticed.” As organizations are going to be justifying their staff, you will see some people step up and really shine. You will also see others step over people and take credit for work they didn’t do. Unfortunately, you may see a rise in office pettiness. You will have to decide in advance how you will choose to respond.
Hopefully leaders become more aware of when they are fostering collaboration and when they are fostering competition. Both are good at the right times. The tendency is to create unhealthy competition without being aware of it.
Lee Towe, Founder of Pie Growers
We’ve been warning about “quiet quitting” and I agree that folks who have taken this path will likely understand our counsel very soon. Managers will have to make tough decisions about who to cut and those who have made themselves indispensable will likely be the ones retained.
Angela Watts, Executive Resume Writer at My Pro Resumes
Entrepreneurs and Side Hustles
As expectations at the workplace evolve, employees may think it’s the right time to try their hand at a side hustle or take the leap into going off on their own. The recession of 2008 brought about some of my favorite companies that were able to use uncertain times to springboard new ideas.
I think and hope we’ll see more people starting side hustles in anticipation of a recession and as a response to hearing about more companies laying off.
Hannah Morgan, Job Search Strategist at Career Sherpa
People are starting to wake up to the fact that they can take their skills and talents and do their own thing.
Joey Perez, Content Creator
People are tired of applications, interviews, waiting, etc. to see if they’re the lucky chosen one for a job that means nothing because at the end of the day, you’re still just a number to a corporation.
We’ve seen a lot of incredible companies birthed out of difficult economic times, so I’d love [to see] great opportunities in new organizations that don’t even exist yet for many to find meaningful, fulfilling steps on their career journeys
Alex Maiersperger, Healthcare Administrator
Professional Development
Typically, in an economic downturn, Learning & Development teams see budget cuts. However, many in the career space feel that this will not be the reality in 2023. Ryan Roslansky recently said, “your next employee may be your current employee”. If hiring budgets are cut, there is likely to be a turn inward to develop the employees already at the company. According to new benchmarking data from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the average cost per hire was nearly $4,700. Not to mention lost productivity during their learning curve. Investing in employees already at the company could be more cost effective, better for morale and a great marketing tool for future employees when it is time to increase headcount.
More reliance on external credentialing, training, and leadership development. I’ve seen more leaders granted budgets to pursue coaching and development. We could see greater traction when people are empowered to select their own track/partners or less traction if leaders lack awareness of their skill gaps
Erica Reckamp, Resume Writer & Job Search Consultant at Job Search Like a Pro
Professional Learning and Development is and will be KEY in 2023. Organization increased pay and are expecting high performing teams.
Hanan AL-Uzaizi Zawideh, Chief Human Resources Officer
I see the biggest trend in systematical up-skilling of current employees, who were due to Great Resignation put on Managerial and/or higher level positions. Among them are many CEOs who lack leadership skills.
Biljana Čenić, HR Recruiter
Do you agree with our 2023 hiring and recruiting predictions?
What do you think of our 2023 hiring and recruiting trends and predictions? We’d love to hear from you. If there is one that we missed, let us know, and we might just include it.
