Hiring in 2023: How Talent Leaders Are Navigating a Changing Market

“Last year, all the floodgates were open and companies hired like never before,” says Vikas Baghel, general manager, talent supply chain and HR technology, Centre of Excellence at HCL Technologies. “Now, many companies are putting in more checks and balances. They’re asking: ‘What is the budget? Do you have somebody on the bench? Can you manage this internally?’” 

Amy Schultz, global head of talent acquisition at Canva, says that during the Great Reshuffle the goal for many companies had been to “hire as many people as you can, as quickly as you can.” But now companies are “moving into a phase where it’ll be more about intelligent growth,” she says. 

In addition, while the previously tight job market put job seekers in the driver’s seat, the pendulum is starting to swing back in favor of employers. Going forward, Vikas Baghel expects candidates to think twice before reneging on job acceptances, a practice that’s become common in recent years. 

“I think this trend will not continue,” he says. “There is some uncertainty in the market. People will start sticking to what they commit to because they know that there’s a consequence.”

“There will be a general theme of ‘make every hire count,’” John says. Hiring managers will be facing a new reality. “You’re not going to get seven hires this year to add to your team — you’re going to get two, so really think strategically about what talent you need,” he says.

In addition, some companies are looking to hire more generalists over specialists and move toward skills-first hiring in order to have flexibility in terms of what projects those employees work on. 

“This means looking at candidates who have a crossover of skills and experience and can move around into different roles within your organization,” says Sharlene John, head of recruitment at Selfridges. “I think that will filter down in terms of looking at the talent that we currently have and how it can be mobilized around the business and not just pigeonholing people into a specific skill set or area.”

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• Moving toward skills-based hiring  

Jennifer Shappley, VP of global talent acquisition at LinkedIn, recently led her team in a scenario-based planning session that examined how they would respond to various potential changes in hiring demand over the next 12 months. As part of the exercise, the group considered the following questions:

If demand goes down:

• How do they use this time to strengthen processes and further develop the team’s skills
• How do they leverage capacity to help in other priority areas?
• What does the team need to know from leadership?
• How can they measure the success of projects taken on outside of the recruiting day-to-day?

If demand goes up: 

• What does the team need?
• What do their stakeholders need? 
• What processes do they need to improve now so that they can scale faster?
• What worked best during other high-growth periods? 

Overall, the planning session helped the team think about what tools they would need to successfully navigate a hot or cold hiring market. 

“If all of a sudden you’re not hiring as much, and you’re also letting your TA folks go, the market can start to question your overall viability as a business,” Amy Schultz says. On the flip side, if you retain your TA team, it shows “you have confidence in your future growth and are leveraging the transferable skills that exist within TA teams perhaps in other areas.” 

Put recruiters to work on projects that may have been lost in the shuffle when hiring was brisk, talent leaders advised. For example, use slower hiring periods to conduct interview training, improve job descriptions, and gather feedback from applicants.  

Now is also the time to catalog the skills recruiters have and consider where they can be successfully redeployed. Focus on boosting team morale. Be transparent about any struggles your company might be facing. Doing these things will make recruiting teams stronger and better prepared for when the job market rebounds.

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• 44 Ways Recruiters Can Have a Big Impact Even During a Hiring Slowdown

Employers are mindful of these concerns and are providing more pay transparency to help set expectations with job seekers. About 19% of U.S. companies surveyed by Willis Towers Watson are planning to disclose pay-range information and another 43% are considering doing so. About 17% of companies already list salaries in cities and states where they’re not required to do so by law. In Europe, the EU Parliament is pushing for companies with at least 50 employees to be required to provide more pay transparency. 

Software company Textio lists salaries on its job posts. In addition, during the hiring process, Textio recruiters talk to candidates about the salaries associated with other roles at the company. “It’s really cool,” says Jackye Clayton, VP of talent acquisition and DEIB at Textio. “We’re making sure people know where the cap is and what they need to do to make it to the next stage.”

This transparency can benefit both companies and candidates. Knowing what a job pays helps candidates decide whether it’s worth their time to apply. In turn, this helps ensure that the candidates who do apply and go through the interview process don’t decline a job offer because the salary doesn’t meet their expectations.

Pay transparency also reduces pay inequities. When salaries are listed up front, there’s less need for negotiation down the line. That helps level the playing field for women and members of other underrepresented groups who are less likely to engage in salary negotiations.

More on this topic:

• 4 Reasons It Pays to Share Salary Ranges, According to Companies That Do

In the U.S., about half of all applications go to remote jobs, despite the fact that they only represent about 14% of job posts, according to LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends, October 2022 report. While the U.S. leads this trend globally, remote jobs are popular around the world. In countries like the U.K., Germany, and India, remote jobs represent about 10% of all job posts, yet receive 20% of all applications.

“It’s clear that the desire for flexibility will continue to be a core element of our employee value proposition,” says Chris Louie, VP of people at news and information company Thomson Reuters. “People are asking for flexibility in many dimensions,” adds Kerstin Wagner, executive vice president of talent acquisition at German railway company Deutsche Bahn “It’s not just where do I work, but when do I work? That’s something candidates are really asking for in addition to wanting to understand why the work they will be doing is meaningful.”  

Talent acquisition teams should also be promoting their companies’ well-being policies when communicating with candidates in job postings and interviews, according to our talent leaders.

Priority VA, a staffing agency, recently posted a job for an executive assistant that included the following words: “You can expect to be appreciated and respected like never before.” The ad triggered hundreds of applications, in part because candidates liked what they read.

“As talent leaders, we need to be prepared to speak to candidates about what our organizations value and how we support our employees,” Jennifer Shappley says.

More on this topic: 

• Flexibility Doesn’t Guarantee Work-Life Balance: 3 Ways Companies Can Set Better Boundaries

“People are looking at the values of companies and what companies stand for,” says Timothy Sanchez, director of executive recruitment and employer branding at telecommunications company Millicom. “I see that as more important now than the traditional perks like ping-pong tables, free lunches, and cool office spaces.” Employers can showcase their values on LinkedIn with the new “featured commitments” section on their LinkedIn Page. 

But words have their limits and employers must keep their promises or face backlash. Candidates regularly study a company’s LinkedIn Page and other social media accounts, as well as news reports, to assess whether it is living up to its sustainability pledges. 

“You have to deliver,” Kerstin Wagner says. “If you don’t, that employee could be gone after six months or a year and the hiring process in a tight labor market starts again.”

More on this topic: 

•  Why the Great Reshuffle Demands You Up Your Employer Brand Game — and 5 Ways to Do It

“If you give candidates the right experience,” says Gautam Shetty, APAC head of talent attraction and acquisition at A.P. Moller – Maersk, “at the end, even if you did not make an offer to them, they might go back to their network and say, ‘You know what? I didn't get the job, but I loved the hiring experience at that organization and maybe you should try it too.’” 

“Every candidate, every conversation, whether that candidate is successful or not, we’ve got an opportunity and a responsibility to add value to those individuals,” adds Hannah Gardiner, head of talent at staffing and recruitment company Austin International. “Lead with empathy. I think if you have a phenomenal candidate experience, that is massively going to support you in winning great talent.”

At A.P. Moller–Maersk, recruiters are trained on how to best engage with candidates to deliver an experience that is transparent, authentic, and in line with its long-standing values. U.K.-based department store chain Selfridges is looking to add more human interactions with candidates to ensure they feel they’re getting the personal touch.

“We want to make sure our candidate experience is extraordinary,” Sharlene John says. “I think during COVID, hiring became quite transactional and we lost some of that human element to recruitment. We’re going into 2023 looking at what we need to automate and digitize and where we can get back those moments that are really memorable for a candidate.” 

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• 9 tactics for creating a first-class interview process

At the same time, employers understand that offering workers opportunities to move up or laterally boosts retention. LinkedIn’s Global Talent Trends, October 2022 report found that an employee who has made an internal move has a 64% chance of staying after three years, whereas an employee who has made no internal moves has a 45% chance of remaining with the company.

 “An important part of our employee value proposition is that you can continuously grow your career at Thomson Reuters,” Chris Louie says.

Implementing effective internal mobility programs isn’t easy. Companies often fail to create a culture where mobility is encouraged and organizations lack processes and programs that connect current employees with job opportunities. The TA leaders we spoke to say they’re actively working to overcome these obstacles.

Thomson Reuters runs internal career fairs for its employees and launched a portal to access internal job openings. At both Canva and Selfridges, members of the TA team help guide current employees through the application and interview process.

A.P. Moller – Maersk, a transport and logistics company, has launched learning and development programs to help their people expand their industry expertise and functional skills. “We’re building a lot more internal capability rather than buying,” Gautam Shetty says. “In line with our talent philosophy, we’re investing a lot more in people from Day 1.”

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• Why Internal Mobility Needs to Be a Key Part of Your Talent Strategy

Several TA leaders note that their companies have set diversity hiring goals and have made diversity and inclusion critical corporate objectives.

Millicom, for instance, has publicly pledged to have women occupy 50% of positions at all levels of the organization by 2030, notes Timothy Sanchez.

“In our conversations about processes, data, and how we interview, we’re keeping this very important goal in mind,” he says. 

Austin International refrains from giving hiring managers resumes before they interview candidates. The goal is to prevent them from formulating opinions based on their personal bias. “We are really looking at how we can make our interview process even more inclusive, and we look at all the opportunities we have to continue to minimize unconscious bias throughout, giving us the ability to continue to reduce barriers to entry,” Hannah Gardiner says. “Then, as the candidate progresses through the process, we’re giving them the opportunity to really showcase their potential."

Selfridges is working to ensure that its employer branding reflects its inclusive culture and its commitment to helping underserved communities. As part of that effort, the retail company is promoting its support of charities that aid social mobility, well-being, and the environment on LinkedIn. 

“One of the things my teams have been really focused on over the last 12 months is talking externally about some of those partnerships,” Sharlene John says. “I think if you look at our LinkedIn company page, you can see it really loud and clear.”

Vikas Baghel says recruiters should be talking about their companies’ inclusive cultures from the very beginning of their interactions with candidates. “It’s important for you to start articulating this right from when you engage the candidate so that they feel it's not just a slogan on your website,” he says. “The goal is to show candidates that diversity and inclusion are really important to everyone at the organization.”

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• 38 Ways to Make Real Progress on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

LinkedIn Learning course: Diversity Recruiting (free from November 8 - December 31, 2022) 

“I think there’s a newfound appreciation for what we do,” Amy Schultz says. “We’re in conversations and we’re collaborating more with cross-functional teams than we ever have before.”

 Amy has seen her responsibilities grow at software company Canva. She now leads workforce planning, as well as internal mobility. “Workforce planning can sit anywhere — it can sit in finance, it can sit in HR, it can sit in real estate,” she says. “I think this demonstrates the expanding scope of talent acquisition.”

More on this topic: 

•  Connecting hiring managers and recruiters

There’s a growing recognition among corporate leaders that talent acquisition can no longer be siloed. Initiatives led by the C-suite and HR have a direct impact on a TA team’s ability to recruit talent. As a result, TA leaders need to be influencing other parts of the people practices within a company, Recruiting Toolbox’s CEO John Vlastelica says. 

“I think you’re seeing this very strong recognition that we need to have a holistic approach to talent,” John says. “And talent acquisition needs to be leading, bringing insights, and not just accepting the status quo."

For instance, John believes talent leaders should assert themselves and be more involved in decisions regarding setting compensation principles and approach. “Internal equity often drives the big compensation decisions, but we need to look at all of the factors that should be driving compensation,” he says. “TA needs to have a voice in more than just candidate offer pay. Internal mobility pay practices, promotion pay, and even performance related pay all impact attrition and recruiting.”

Google is already embracing this strategy. Last year, as the company faced its biggest hiring year ever, it sent members from its talent acquisition team into a rotation on the comp team, Alice White, the director of recruiting at the tech company noted at LinkedIn’s recent Recruiter Reunion.

TA team members also need to have a clear grasp on why employees might be exiting the company after a short period of time, John Vlastelica says. That feedback can be helpful when targeting future candidates. 

“Recruiting doesn’t own retention,” John says. “But obviously, if you have a leaky bucket, if you’re trying to bring in new talent but current employees keep leaving in droves, you’re not going to make much progress. I think there’s a feedback loop that’s necessary for TA to be effective. Why are people leaving? Is it money, the work and EVP, lack of inclusion, poor management, or what? I think root-issue conversations with TA leaders are going to be a big focus in 2023.”

LinkedIn Learning course: HR Recruiting Communication Strategies to Attract and Retain Top Talent (free from November 8 - December 31, 2022)