The 8 HR trends that will shape the future
While recent years have seen an economic downturn, the talent market has remained hot. Employers must be more flexible to overcome the conflicting challenges of a tight budget and competitive talent pool.
We expect these top 8 recruitment and HR trends to shape 2024 and the upcoming years:
HR trend #1: Organizations will take action to relieve pressure on managers
One of the primary themes emerging as a recent trend in HR is the redesigning of managerial roles. A manager is the primary point of contact for many hybrid and remote workers.
While organizations continue to adjust to location-independent work, managers must balance the complex and conflicting needs of employees and their organizations.
Managers are taking on more responsibility than ever before. Top organizations will redesign managerial roles to reflect their new responsibilities - providing them with training and support.
HR trend #2: Skills-based hiring is emerging
Employers will broaden their talent pool by focusing on the skills needed to do the job instead of degree requirements. According to research by Remote, skills-based hiring has increased by 63% in the last year.
Hiring for skill has many benefits, including broadening the diversity of the workforce, increasing the speed of hiring and boosting the likelihood of finding the perfect person for the job.
As skills-based hiring gains popularity, more employers will include a skills test in the hiring process. These ‘test drive’ helps employers assess a potential candidate’s ability to do the job by reviewing the skills they used to complete the task - a more accurate assessment method than formal interviews alone.
Read more about a test drive and other tips on how to recruit better.
HR trend #3: AI will support HR in new ways
AI and emerging technologies are reaching mass adoption across almost all industries - including HR and recruitment. We have seen a big hype around ChatGPT, a long-form question-and-answer chatbot tool that produces human-quality responses.
ChatGPT and similar AI tools perform at their best when creating standardized, repetitive content.
HR managers and recruiters will increasingly use this tool to write job descriptions, create posts about open roles, develop recruitment ads, ideate alternative job titles and flesh-out role description tasks in more detail - saving time and resources.
HR trend #4: More employers will advertise salaries up-front
In this global HR trend, governments worldwide will continue to pursue legislation that makes pay transparent for job seekers. Leading companies already see the benefits of doing so.
“Indeed’s research finds that applicants are 68% more likely to apply for a position if the salary range is listed in the description and 60% more likely if the company publishes transparent salary bands for all jobs.” 2
HR trend #5: Top employers will support work flexibility
Workers want to choose when and where they work. For some, this may mean working 2-3 longer days each week to work fewer days overall. For others who are more productive later in the day, this may mean starting late and working into the night.
Top employers will see the benefits of working asynchronously: flexibility, productiveness, and employer attractiveness. These employers will make the cultural change needed to support it.
This new way of working requires solid processes and policies in place for it to work well, including a documentation-first approach and respect for work-life boundaries.
HR trend #6: Soft skills will become more sought after
While technical skills are still highly valued and irreplaceable in the digital industries, soft skills will become some of the most sought-after skills all employers seek.
As the world becomes increasingly digitalized, the proficiency of human skills will become more important across all roles.
“They will be critical to one’s future employability, and underpinning all of this, is one’s commitment to continuous learning”, says John Rogers, Vice President of Strategic Accounts and Partnerships at Pearson.
What are the most desirable soft skills today? Communication, customer service, leadership, attention to detail and collaboration. 3
Recruiting trend #7: ESG will play a role in talent acquisition
Employees care. Workers will put more emphasis on what they do and whether it has a positive impact. According to a survey reported in the Harvard Business Review, 9 out of 10 employees said that they would trade a portion of their life’s earnings for greater meaning at work.
Employers who put ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues at the heart of their strategy will be more likely to hire and retain top talent.
Topics that fall under the ESG category include sustainability, DEI, social responsibility, pay equity and transparency. These themes represent one of the primary HR trends for the future.
HR trend #8: HR burnout will increase in the future
In recent years, we’ve seen one of the most significant shifts in ways of working since the industrial period. HR workers have been at the frontline of these changes - from layoffs to mental health issues, changing business practices and reinvigorating company culture. As many as 42% of HR teams are struggling with burnout 4.
Leaders must assess the workload carried by HR professionals and provide them with the support, training and assistance needed to relieve the burden.
In the future, HR leaders will need to review traditional recruitment processes to cultivate the skill and talent required to thrive. Improving transparency, redesigning roles, redistributing capabilities and exploring non-traditional routes will put some organizations in the lead.
Does your HR team need support?
With Heron Talent as your recruitment partner, our consultants will help you navigate the talent shortage and find the qualified candidates your company needs to thrive. Get in touch today.
References
9 Future of Work Trends For 2023, Gartner, December 22, 2022
A Piece of the Pie: Understanding the Importance of Fair Pay, Indeed, January 22, 2021
Top Ten HR Trends For The 2023 Workplace, Forbes, January 10, 2023
Burnout Is a Problem for HR Professionals, SHRM, March 14, 2022
Photo by Oleg Laptev on Unsplash
