The future of work is about workforce agility. Defining what that looks like in talent acquisition will take fully embracing what’s changed and the technology that enables thriving in that change.
In this article, we discuss:
The labor landscape might as well be a tale of two cities.
Layoffs and hiring slowdowns tend to dominate the discourse on the economic outlook, but that isn’t putting a damper on what’s considered a strong labor market. The job market at the beginning of 2023 was stronger than expected, and the unemployment rate remains historically low.
What’s more, the delicate balance of labor supply and demand depends on the industry, an insight reflected in anonymized data from the Workday platform. For example, retail and manufacturing were the top industries with the most job requisitions in 2022, and the highest volumes of job applications were submitted to retail and financial services. Healthcare and education were among the lowest job applications per requisition.
Now put that backdrop against the high expectations of job seekers and the acceleration of skills-based hiring, and the new challenges for talent acquisition leaders are many. But change will be for the better.
After all, the future of work is about adaptability. Defining what that adaptability looks like in talent acquisition will take fully comprehending how the world has changed and embracing the technology that enables thriving in that change.
Despite the mixed-signal economy, the labor landscape is still a job seeker’s market.
And after being in the driver’s seat for so long—as reflected in the past couple of years with the “Great Resignation” and “quiet quitting”—higher expectations around the candidate experience have become permanent.
The candidate experience starts before a candidate even applies for a job. It begins with the initial marketing and engagement outreach between the candidate and company to explore their goals and learn about new job opportunities. From there, the candidate experience continues through the recruiting process, including when candidates apply for the job and interview, the communication at all stages (even when a candidate is rejected), and staying in touch as new opportunities open up.
Job seekers are using the candidate experience to gauge workplace culture, a top consideration in the job search. If at any time the candidate senses a red flag that signals a workplace isn’t the right fit, job seekers aren’t afraid to “ghost” the recruiting process. What’s more, job seekers who have a negative experience in the interviewing process are likely to post about it online.
All of which makes clear that the employee experience starts long before the hire date, making recruiters a vital first touchpoint.
Defining what that adaptability looks like in talent acquisition will take fully comprehending how the world has changed and embracing the technology that enables thriving in that change.
The concept of taking a skills-based approach is not new to human resources (HR); however, what’s new is the accelerated adoption of skills as an important criteria. Ever since upskilling and reskilling employees proved useful in helping companies pivot their business priorities and adopt new business models, leaders have realized that a skills-based lens will help the organization better navigate change. As a result, talent acquisition professionals must ensure they’re bringing crucial capabilities into the organization.
Skills-based hiring focuses on a person’s capabilities, relevant experiences, and ancillary, in-demand skill sets and gives less weight to a candidate’s formal education or number of years in a previous job. However, successful skills-based hiring requires a trustworthy artificial intelligence (AI)-approach to sourcing. Recruiters will need to critically look at how their talent acquisition strategies are bringing the needed skills through the candidate pipeline. Do job descriptions reflect a skills-based approach, such as only listing college degree requirements when they’re necessary to perform the job? Are job postings promoted in channels that widen the talent pipeline?
As the first touchpoint in the talent brand experience, recruiters need the tools that help them maximize their impact and influence.
Recruiters have always needed to meet candidates where they are and help organizations get the talent they need. But given the dynamics of an ever-changing labor market, high expectations of the candidate experience, and the urgency to take a skill-based approach, recruiters must, well, recruit differently. They can do so by leveraging technology that enables them with adaptability to nurture the talent pipeline, strategize with data, and augment decision-making with AI and machine learning (ML).
As the first touchpoint in the talent brand experience, recruiters need the tools that help them maximize their impact and influence. Typically, a job candidate would get a sense of the company values and culture through the company’s “about us” page. But talent acquisition tools are evolving and, consequently, driving change.
Among the biggest advancements in talent acquisition are tools that empower recruiters to be more agile to changing needs of the business. For example, Workday Candidate Engagement enables recruiters to run email campaigns and create website landing pages, and track and manage the engagement performance of those efforts, all without needing to go through admin support. Recruiters can create personalized content to showcase company culture and other benefits that job seekers are prioritizing, such as career development and flexibility. Recruiters are able to be strategic and bold in how they communicate employee brand value and nurture talent pools with competitive or targeted skill sets, keeping leads warm during a lengthy hiring process or hiring slowdowns.
Employee experience starts long before the hire date, making recruiters a vital first touchpoint.
As companies accelerate their skills-based strategies, talent acquisition must be able to strategically build a talent pipeline that’s aligned with the organization’s diverse skills-based hiring goals.
The approach is different from how recruiters have traditionally sourced talent, which was by job. But the quickening pace of change and advancements in technology are radically transforming the skills required for jobs. A skills-based talent strategy enables an organization to be more agile. By considering a person’s full range of skills and capabilities, including functional skills, technical skills, soft skills, and adjacent skills, companies gain a workforce that’s more responsive to emerging opportunities.
To get those needed skills in the talent pipeline, talent acquisition must ensure that job descriptions include the capabilities needed for the role and that openings are being promoted in talent pools that have the desired skill sets. But a robust skills-based hiring strategy must be informed by the skills insights in a talent management system, which is often a separate function that talent acquisition teams may not have access to.
That needs to change if a company wants to truly be a skills-based organization.
Talent acquisition teams must be equipped with an enterprise wide AI and ML-driven skills intelligence foundation that incorporates the necessary skills insights from talent management. These insights will help recruiters identify candidates whose skills are aligned with the priorities of the business or help fill the skills gaps in the organization if internal talent mobility is not feasible.
The primary objective of talent acquisition will always be to effectively attract top talent. But just like how the business landscape goes through constant change, how to attract talent successfully is also going through a major shift. The ever-evolving labor market, heightened expectations of job candidates, and the organizational movement toward a skills-based talent strategy—all are impacting how talent acquisition teams identify top talent. And to do so successfully, talent acquisition teams need tools that enable adaptability in how they nurture the talent pipeline, strategize with data, and augment decision-making with AI and ML.
Advances in technology are strengthening talent acquisition as a strategic advisor to the employee experience and talent management, and more broadly, fortifying the role of HR as a driver of growth and transformation.
Our findings, based on metrics from the Workday platform, provide insights into momentum around growing internal talent and what it all might mean for companies and job seekers in the year ahead.
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