What will the recruitment trends be for 2023? There’s several hot topics in the industry, including candidate shortages, diversity and inclusion, and the ever-increasing application of technology. However, with macro-economic factors causing financial headwinds, will these stall, or given the number of open roles, could recruitment be immune from the slow-down?
Recently, the Office for Budget Responsibility predicted that a recession could continue until Q3 of the new year. What is the fallout for recruitment agencies and the industry at large? Access Recruitment, a division of The Access Group, gathered industry leading experts and influencers to share their expectations for what 2023 has in store for recruitment agencies, jobseekers, and employers.
Christian Fleck, Managing Director at Access Recruitment commented: “In 2022 the recruitment industry experienced a whole host of change that included legislative and economic shifts as the bounce back from COVID-19 continued. We are starting to see some financial headwinds and I believe these will continue into 2023, however recruitment businesses can overcome them with the implementation of the right recruitment technology that can and will drive efficiencies.”
How will candidate attraction evolve?
For many of the experts Access Recruitment spoke to, the impending financial situation should be offset by ongoing candidate shortages, so as not to be a cause for major concern for the recruitment industry. Jon Brooks, Founder and Pricing Consultant at The Value Advantage observes “the labour market has been getting smaller for some time. As the number of open positions declines due to the recession, the labour market size will be more in line with the number of vacancies. Consequently, recruitment consultants will be able to fulfil demand more easily.”
Dave Pye, Co-Founder & Director at Jump Advisory comments that the unstable economic market should not be seen as an immediate threat by the recruitment industry. “The financial situation may be turbulent, but in terms of available candidates, there’s still a real shortage. This is a real opportunity for companies that want to scale and grow to improve their candidate attraction approaches to become more competitive.”
Candidate attraction is an ever-changing aspect of recruitment agencies’ day-to-day, with David Mercer, Head of Sales EMEA at Daxtra Technologies commenting that the use of anonymous CVs could become increasingly common in 2023. “Organisations will increasingly consider removing key information, such as names, genders, and ethnicities from CVs before they are presented to hiring managers. This avoids unconscious bias creeping into hiring decisions and encourages a purely skills-based hiring decision.”
An opportunity to refocus on the individual
These trends point towards a shift in focus, whereby recruiters and their clients focus more heavily on individual candidates and employees. For instance, Sam Holden, Account Executive at OneUp Sales predicts that there will be a shift from team to individual-based incentives and rewards. “Businesses will be focusing more on personalised approaches to meeting individuals’ needs.”
Concentrating on diversity and inclusion to provide a better candidate experience for those from minority backgrounds is equally high on the agenda. According to Jon Brooks, Founder and Pricing Consultant at The Value Advantage, “the recruitment industry isn’t doing enough when it comes to diversity and inclusion. Recruiters have an opportunity to educate their clients on the value of diversity and inclusion in 2023, by creating strong messaging throughout a company.”
Moving forwards towards growth
Simon Bliss, Chairman at TEAM states that differences in performance across the industry will become commonplace in 2023. “Right now, it’s a period of preparation, wherein recruitment agencies have to work to give themselves that edge and set themselves apart from the competition in 2023’s market.”
Despite varying performance, growth is nonetheless forecast overall. Neil Carberry, CEO at Recruitment and Employment Confederation comments that growth is likely to come through “the reallocation of employees into different industries. To survive the recession, candidates will move from more traditional roles into innovative new areas such as digital.”
Christian Fleck, Managing Director at Access Recruitment concludes: “The recruitment market will remain dynamic, and this will favour proactive recruitment businesses. Candidates could still dominate the market, yet clients looking to hire could start to see the pendulum swing back in their direction.
The global financial headwinds we’ve started to witness will be a continued factor in 2023. Yet by using powerful recruitment technology – thereby eradicating manual tasks agencies can expect more efficiencies which allow them to standout in an increasingly competitive industry irrespective of whether candidates or clients are the overriding driver in the market”.
