As we are stepping into 2023, the HR business is entering with new technological advancements in the recruitment industry. This new year will come with a lot of changed scenarios. So here is a quick list of what trends HR professionals should watch out for, in order to be better prepared.

1. Data Driven Recruitment

Data-driven recruitment means using data analytics to gain a variety of insights regarding the applicants. This helps to filter out talent from a large pool of applicants. 2023 will see a bigger rise in data-driven recruitment. PMaps Recruitment Platform is one such example. They allow recruiters to maintain a database, keep a track of candidates and utilize various algorithms to bring forward the best of the talent in a much shorter span of time. Data-driven recruitment will also help HR Professionals to predict the future trends and use these insights to design workable HR policies, recruitment plans, etc.

2. Emergence Of A New Talent Pool – Gen Z

Gen-Z will be dominating the workforce in the year 2023. It has been predicted that these new entrants will make up around 58% of the workforce in the coming years. And since this generation is coming with a different mindset and expectations, HR Leaders will be restructuring their talent acquisition strategies to accommodate this new talent pool. This would cover the lengths and breadths of recruitment, such as automating its core to make it more speedy; adopting new ways, such as social media recruitment, mobile recruitment, making the job role much more transparent and emphasizing on the work culture.

3. Hiring With Digital Assessments

A crucial part in hiring is the ‘candidate screening'. It is also one of the most time-consuming process in a hiring cycle. But AI-powered digital assessments will make this a lot easier for the HR professionals, especially when the majority of work has moved to digital spaces due to the pandemic. From helping the recruiters reach the untapped talent pool across multiple geographies, to giving fast, accurate and comprehensive results – digital assessments will become a major part of screening procedure during hiring in the coming year.

4. People-Centric Approach

Covid-19 has shifted the focus of the market more on the candidate experience. Companies that will work with a people-centric or people first approach will gain competitive advantage in the marketplace. Giving candidates a visual-based experience while assessing, getting feedback from the candidates to understand their needs better, personalizing the hiring process, adding instant help aids such as chatbots, user-friendly websites, etc. will all become a part of enhancing candidate experience. People-centric approach in business will not be limited to just the hiring stage. It will go a step ahead of hiring, and will extend to providing candidates a healthy work environment, mental-health friendly workplace and a good work-life balance as well.

5. Competitive Hiring Market 

The past year marks the beginning of The Great Resignation, where the masses are leaving their jobs during the pandemic, which has resulted in short staffing issues. Thus, amidst this shuffling, the companies will be focusing more on hiring and retaining the talent. A coverage by News18, discusses that the net hiring intent of employers is expected to record a sharp jump in the first quarter of 2023 and around 49% of Indian companies expect to increase their workforce in the January-March. HR Professionals will be coming up with innovative talent strategies and widening their job applicants pool.

6. High Demand For Digitally-Equipped Workforce

The coming year will mark the rapid acceleration of automation. This means that a majority of the companies will be looking to hire employees who are digitally equipped to establish themselves as a digitally ready business. According to the Times Of Youth, an international magazine, after 2020 – around 90% of the jobs will require digital skills. This would start from the demand for basic software skills such as hands-on experience over MS Word, WordPress, Photoshop, etc. to more specific skills such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media skills, digital marketing, digital designing, etc.

7. “Soft-Skills” – A Requisite For 2023 Recruitment

The in-demand skill sets will evolve from job-specific skills to soft skills in the year 2023. With the maturation of multiple Corona  variants and knocking off the third wave of Covid-19, companies will be buckling down and creating a workforce that possesses the relevant soft skills to keep the work to continue. This can be anything ranging from adaptability to flexibility – that can aid the newly hired candidates to navigate all sorts of challenging and uncertain business situations. Companies would also take into consideration the possible work-related scenarios for the future while hiring on soft skills. One such example is a soft skill called “self-motivation” that would help the employees function productively in the work-from-home environments.

8. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DE&I)

Diversity recruitment means hiring employees who belong to different geographies, culture, ethnicities, castes, religions, etc. According to the 2021 HR Sentiment Survey conducted over 200 senior HR leaders, it was evident that the priorities of Human Resource Professionals are changing. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will be amongst the top two priorities for the following year. HR Professionals will work on incorporating new policies that will ensure equal opportunities for everyone, regardless of what background they come from. Also, this wouldn't be limited to just a big set of policies. It would also include smaller initiatives such as hiring and training the future leaders to communicate more inclusively with their teams, too.

9. Flexible Work Arrangements 

The State of Remote Work Report, published by OwlLabs shows that 1 in 2 people won't return to jobs that wouldn't offer them remote work after COVID-19. With the pandemic, people started evaluating their true calling and setting up new and healthy standards for work. They won't hesitate to walk away from a workplace that doesn't have flexible arrangements. And this flexibility isn't limited to the remote work option. It is more about getting the liberty to choose where one wants to work from, whether it's home, office, or any other place. This is now commonly referred to as Distributed Teams or Hybrid Work.

10. Gig Workers Will Be On Rise

A gig-worker is someone who takes up work on a short-term basis and is not part of the traditional employer-employee arrangement. Talking specifically about the corporate sectors, gig economy was at its very initial stages during the past year. It was solely confined to “low income jobs” such as waiters, delivery agents, masons, etc. But in the next year it will be covering the majority of the sectors. Now more and more companies will be opting for freelancers to do the jobs. According to the Assocham report, India's gig economy is predicted to be worth $455 billion by 2023. The new age generation is inclined towards such setups due to high flexibility, income, take-offs, and most importantly, a much better work-life balance. With digital transformation, the internet, and a variety of apps, it will become much easier to access such freelancing opportunities too, unlike older times.

TO SUM UP: 

After transitioning back and forth into different work setups, work styles, hiring methods, one thing can be said with certainty, that – Change Is Here To Stay. And not only the working styles, also the job seeking trends are wavering with the pandemic. This also means that under such changes, the recruitment process needs to be adaptable. Analyzing and understanding such trends, can help HR Professionals to be better prepared for the year 2023 and beyond.

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