The only absolute certainty is that there is no going back to the way things were pre-pandemic. The old normal is gone, even if there are no definitive indications yet of what the new normal will be. 

Not an easy time, you might think, to be making predictions for the next 12 months. But there is sense to be made in all this uncertainty. Armed with our hard-won talent market intel and on-the-ground observations from our seasoned consultants, we have some valuable insights to share.

Here’s the EWS view on where the talent market is heading in 2024… and what smart recruiters need to do to be prepared.

The global economy in 2024

Macroeconomic forecasting has become something of a fool’s errand in recent years. The world economy has been disrupted by an unprecedented sequence of black swan events, all while the climate emergency makes ever-more-urgent demands for new economic thinking. However, optimism is now coalescing around core factors like growth, inflation and employment. 

Goldman Sachs Research, which predicted the global economy’s outperformance against expectations in 2023, is even more positive about the prospects for 2024. Income growth, cooling inflation, a robust job market, room for Central Banks to reduce interest rates – it’s not for nothing that their report is titled The Hard Part Is Over. 

The OECD predicts more uneven growth but a similar picture around interest rates and continuing low unemployment rates. 

Specifically in the talent space, Recruitics forecasts cooling labour markets, although cautions of a persisting gap between supply and demand. 

So where does this leave recruiters? We’re viewing the answer as a shift from wait-and-see mode to planning mode. Irrespective of the precise trajectory of the market in 2024, it’s highly likely that growth is stabilising and an uptick in investment is on the horizon. 

That gap between supply and demand won’t be closing any time soon. So when the time does come to start hiring again, the successful recruiters will be the best prepared. 

“This isn’t the time to be reactive. We know a fundamental change is coming and there will be a point relatively soon when you will be hiring more than you have been. The best way to be ahead of that is to start early. Invest in talent pipelining, invest in talent mapping. Ultimately, the busier you are now, the better positioned you’ll be when the boom does come.”

Darren Hornigold, EWS Director

Emerging talent trends for 2024

We’re seeing some significant new trends emerging, with other recent trends solidifying, falling back or balancing out. These are converging to reshape the talent landscape for 2024 – and every one of them should be on your strategic radar right now.

1. The end of The Great Resignation? 

As our Global Delivery Leader Ken Craig notes, all signs are that The Great Resignation is itself quietly quitting. 

“Workers quitting or job-hopping spiked in 2021-22 but post-pandemic, this looks to have peaked. Through 2023, we’ve seen ever-stronger emphasis on candidates who haven’t jumped from job to job. And this dampening in demand has also seen wages start to balance out after a period of inflated growth. Things are looking a lot more sustainable on that front now.”

This is one big relief for talent teams, but no reason yet to take your eye off the retention ball. 

Ken cautions that “employees want evidence they’re in a company that wants them long term. Many of our clients are investing heavily in learning & development – both upskilling and reskilling – to design career progression paths to retain top talent. This is a key employer brand pillar and one that vastly improves employee engagement.”

2. The Great Retirement gathers pace

As Strategic Dimensions puts it, “the 2020s is the decade during which the challenge of an ageing population shifts from being tomorrow’s problem to today’s.” Almost half-way through, with the Covid-accelerated rise in workers retiring early, this is a workforce trend that cannot be ignored.

There is vast intellectual capital locked up in all those Baby Boomers, and increasingly Gen X executives, on the verge of retirement. Without a clear view of where to find the next generation of exec-level talent, The Great Retirement will be anything but great for organisational futures.

EWS Director Darren Hornigold proposes a clear strategic solution. “The more people analytics you use, the more you understand the ebb and flow of your workforce and the wider talent market. So you know you’re going to have a 10% loss of ‘grey’ intellectual capital over the next five years. How are you going to manage that effectively without a talent pipeline?” 

3. The Great Reprioritisation: Rise of the selective candidate

We are seeing an intrinsic shift in what candidates are prioritising in their career decision-making. So fundamental is this shift, we’ve coined an entirely new category of candidates. Where we previously demarcated active and passive candidates, we now speak more and more of selective candidates.

These are candidates who are only open to exploring new opportunities if they fit certain criteria, typically around working pattern, culture and non-compensatory benefits. Crucially, even for roles where there’s a good competency fit, if these criteria aren’t met, selective candidates are saying ‘no’ far sooner.

Darren explains: “Traditionally, our model was to target passive candidates. But now we’re having a completely different type of engagement. Candidates can be active for two or three conversations, and then very quickly they’re turned off because it doesn’t quite fit with what they want in their life. For selective candidates, what matters to you is a holistic thing rather than a job title”.

This poses a major new challenge for recruiters, one that will only grow with the rise of the selective candidate. It’s no longer enough to have a big name, an attractive role and a great compensation package. 

As Darren puts it, “now you need to factor in all kinds of intangible variables. Can they work from home? What are their long-term incentives? What are you doing about wellbeing? What’s in the office fridge? Do you have a ping pong table? It’s a different landscape with a far greater need for more nuanced qualification.”

Navigating that landscape, then, requires an equally nuanced mindset. This is partly an employer branding challenge. Ken is finding that “an organisation’s perception in the market is becoming increasingly important, with green and sustainable practices particularly high on candidate agendas. You can no longer rely on the company name. It’s about changing the go-to-market narrative.”

Another crucial mindset shift for talent acquisition teams is from prioritising identification to focusing resources on candidate engagement. Which leads us neatly on to our final trend…

4. The sweet spot between AI and HI

The exponential growth of AI recruitment tools continues apace, particularly in managing job applicants. We’re going to see more and more ChatGPT-written job descriptions, chatbot-answered application questions and interview questions generated by AI tech analysing job descriptions and applications.

Yet with the rise of the selective candidate, the demand for human intelligence at the front end of the recruitment process will become greater than ever. AI tech undoubtedly has the potential to 10x our work in candidate identification. But in the increasingly critical engagement phase, it’s another story altogether, as Darren explains.

“With selective candidates, it’s no longer binary qualification. Say you’re looking for a Marketing Director on the U.S. West Coast with a B2B background, some B2C and 8+ years’ experience. You have three key essentials and there’s a good chance AI will improve our ability to map out that market. What it can’t do is ask the question about the grey areas, the intangibles. It can’t engage on a human level. And unless you’re willing to risk the quality of your candidate experience, that person-to-person element is essential.”

How talent acquisition teams are preparing for 2024

Hiring is going to be back on the agenda in 2024, even if our crystal ball doesn’t allow us to put an exact timeline on it. But when investment starts flowing again and the new war for talent does break out, you’ll win by having put in the groundwork early.  

We know that in-demand skills are already scarce and competition for that talent is only set to rise more sharply. Factor in the advent of the selective candidate and the pressures of the Great Retirement, and the smart money is on the horizon-scanners, not the shoegazers.

As ever, EWS is here to help you take a more strategic view of talent acquisition. We’re experts in talent mapping, so we can apply a laser focus to the talent markets you want to understand. And our pipelining prowess will help you build proactive talent pools, ready to be dipped into when the time is right. 

When that moment comes, you can rely on us to seamlessly search for and engage the best candidates, attending to their deeper priorities as well as their career aspirations and salary expectations. 

With that in mind, perhaps we have one final recommendation for the year ahead. In 2024, choose a talent partner that’s in it for the long term.

“The talent landscape is changing and hiring priorities are in flux. In this market, a true partner is one that can adapt easily to map out the road ahead. They will know your business, your competitors and your market. They’ll understand your culture and the types of people you want to attract. And crucially, they can give you the insights and intel to shape your hiring around your strategy.”

Emma Watson, EWS Managing Director

The post The EWS View: Top Talent Trends For 2024 appeared first on EWS.

If the EWS fairy could grant you one hiring wish, what would it be? To make qualified, pre-screened candidates magically appear before your eyes, ready to fill vital vacancies the moment they arise?

Your wish is our command, with no magic wand required. If you can reset your recruiting mindset from whack-a-mole vacancy plugging to proactive planning and relationship building, the benefits of talent pipelining are yours to reap for years to come.

There’s a reason why more and more top global employers are adopting a talent pipelining strategy for their mission-critical roles. Actually there are several reasons and we’ll get onto them shortly. But first of all, let’s be completely clear what we’re talking about.

What is talent pipelining?

The principle of talent pipelines is simple. If you know where your company’s key talent gaps are, it’s a good idea to plan in advance how you fill them, rather than merely responding as and when they arise.

First you identify and reach out to quality passive candidates in your chosen market. You’re not contacting them about a specific job, but forging a relationship, bringing them into your world and immersing them in your uniquely compelling company story.

The aim is to create a talent pool overflowing with these passive but interested candidates. You keep in contact regularly, establishing culture fit, updating them on your plans and staying in touch with theirs. Then, when the right opportunity comes along, your dream candidates are warmed up and ready to dive in – making the process smoother and cleaner for everyone involved.

What are the benefits?

So now, back to the reasons why talent pipelining done well is the path to recruiting nirvana. There are four main virtues.

1. Talent pipelining cuts time to hire

Your talent pipeline is a fast track to relevant, pre-screened warm leads for your most important roles. If it takes some time and resources to set up in the first place, the outlay is more than made up for by your ability to move fast when it matters most to your organisation. If you need any help, we’re here to get things up and running.

2. Talent pipelining cuts cost per hire

You stand to save significant amounts of money in two ways. First, this is a direct sourcing initiative with massive potential to reduce your reliance on expensive agencies. Second, by selecting from a familiar, pre-engaged talent pool, you reduce the chances of making bad hires and incurring all the damaging costs that come with them.

3. Talent pipelining improves candidate quality

When you’re the one making the approach, you’re the one controlling the quality of candidates in your pipeline. The effect is compounded by the argument that passive candidates are better candidates. You’re talking to people not actively looking to move on from their current job, which shows commitment, loyalty and integrity. And when the time does come to make a decision on your future opportunity, they’re more likely to say yes or no for the right reasons.

4. Talent pipelining makes recruitment a strategic driver

The best talent teams are interested in so much more than bums on seats. Strategic talent planning lets you future-proof your organisation by making smart preparations to overcome hiring challenges in the years ahead. Talent pipelining is the centrepiece of any robust talent strategy, as many of our clients will tell you…

We’ve been working with a Tier 1 bank for several years to continually build market knowledge and connections for future vacancies. Today, a significant proportion of the successful approaches we make are to candidates mapped up to three years ago.

We’ve helped another client, a global tech corporation, to build flourishing talent pipelines across sales, account management and systems engineering, throughout EMEA and LatAm. The ability to stockpile talent for hard-to-fill roles in challenging markets is clearly another big plus for talent pipelining.

Planning through turmoil

Crucially, if ever there was a time to start building your talent pipeline, this is it.

We live in an age of global uncertainty that shows no imminent sign of stabilising. For some the response is to cling on and hope to ride out the storm. Others see the opportunity to put in place systems and strategies to prepare for the future business landscape, whatever it looks like.

A well-stocked and nourished talent pool lets organisations plan for their potential hiring needs in any number of possible futures.

Another way of putting it: the only future you really need worry about is the one in which you never get round to developing your talent pipeline.

Those in the know, share. If you think your network would find inspiration in this post, we’ve made it really easy for you to tell them using the LinkedIn Share button below.

The post Talent Pipelining 101: What You Need to Know and Why You Need to Know it Now appeared first on EWS.

To recap: for every individual prowling the job boards for their next position, there are 3 people happily getting on with their current job. Yet 85% of these so-called passive candidates are open to hearing about new opportunities.

So purely as a numbers game, reaching out to passive candidates makes a lot of sense. But there are more strategic reasons to focus your talent resources on engaging and recruiting them as well.

In a nutshell, passive candidates enrich your pool of available talent and often make better hires. Here’s why:

They have integrity

An active jobseeker is seeking a way out or step up. Who’s to say your role is the one they’re going to settle in? Passive candidates, meanwhile, are focused first and foremost on the job they’re in. If it takes a lot to prise them from it, that’s a great indicator of their loyalty (not a quality you’d necessarily associate with candidates who treat every new job as a springboard).

Their motivations are transparent

Job applications are a breeding ground for evasion, exaggeration and embellishment. It’s human nature. If we want to be the standout applicant, we’ll do what it takes to stand out… maybe inflating a little leadership experience here or puffing up major project involvement there. But with passive candidates, you’re making the approach, so there’s really no need for them to go overboard trying to impress you. Your relationship is forged in mutual trust and respect. Chances are that’s how it will continue after they join.

They’ll choose you for the right reasons

If your passive candidate is content in their current job, they’ll make a dispassionate decision about whether yours is a good long-term move. If your active jobseeker is desperate to get away from a job they dislike, you’re basically the next passing ship. They may be keen to jump on board; doesn’t mean they’re interested in the destination.

You aren’t in a bun fight for them

What happens when you find out your preferred applicant has offers from 2 competitors? You end up in a bidding war that could see you pay over the odds to secure their talents. Whereas if you’re the only suitor, yours is the only offer they’re negotiating on. So you’re more likely to get a loyal, honest, considerate, top-quality hire for less!

They won’t forget you in a hurry

You have no guarantees that any passive talent you approach will say yes right away. And while that’s an issue for your current vacancy, it’s no bad thing for your long-term talent planning. Any candidate you successfully engage now will remember you in the future. Building those relationships is the secret of any successful talent pipeline (something else we know a bit about).

Using this logic, more and more companies globally are directly sourcing and nurturing the candidates they want to hire, rather than hoping good people stumble across their vacancy online. And they’re reaping the benefits in the quality of their subsequent hires.

The next question is how you switch those wonderful passive candidates on to your role. Luckily, we provided the answers in a previous post. Read it here.

The post Why Sourcing Passive Candidates Is Smarter Than Settling For Active Job Seekers appeared first on EWS.