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Predicting Talent Trends of 2023

After a rocky couple of months and a rollercoaster few years, the world of talent heads into a new year unsure of what to expect. Colin Hickey, Chief Commercial Officer at Starcircle, offers his thoughts on what’s around the corner.

Do More with Less

Some of the biggest talent-related stories in 2022  involved massive lay-offs and redundancies, particularly in tech, and often hitting Talent Acquisition teams the hardest – too hard in my opinion. 

As a result, a lot of organizations will be under-resourced in talent attraction, which will adversely affect their hiring demands in 2023. In such cases, automation and technology will be leaned on to fill the gap efficiently and effectively to find, activate, qualify and hire the top talent required. 

Top Talent to Remain Hard to Hire

Traditionally among the hardest to attract and activate, the market for technical talent has been tight and will remain so. This talent is as close to recession-proof as it gets, and less likely to have been offered redundancy in 2022. While a lot of experienced tech professionals will be on the market, don’t count on a large amount of technical talent being among them. 

To engage with this sector in 2023, the usual tactics – posting to job sites, LinkedIn activity – won’t cut it. It will require innovation and going beyond the obvious such as the methods demonstrated by Starcircle’s Eliza Molina, who writes here about going beyond the obvious to source candidates, via Reddit, Github and even Discord. 

Hybrid’s here to stay but Remote has a fight on its hands

The tech industry receives much more coverage than others, skewing the perception of talent market trends. So while the last few months presented a grim picture, it’s not necessarily conclusive and I’m confident that most industries won’t experience similar circumstances in 2023. 

Anecdotally, I’ve heard that companies are pulling back on the levels of flexibility they offer. “The balance of power is shifting” is a common phrase during these discussions. While I understand the reasoning, I believe that companies that go too far in that direction will reduce their addressable candidate pool and become less competitive in 2023. 

We ran an analysis recently for one of our clients to help with their decision process; 15% of their current open roles were remote positions, these roles represented over 50% of the active candidates in their ATS that were achieved through sourcing and direct applications; this insight prompted a rethink in their pull back on remote positions for 2023. 

I’m confident that hybrid working will be the happy medium for organizations and staff but the number of remote only jobs will be similar to 2022 or decrease in favour of more in-person interactions and the benefits that offers. Talent Leaders would be wise to use their data from the last year before reducing remote roles. 

AQ to Make a Mark 

After a century of IQ (Intelligence Quotient) theory and the rise of EQ (Emotional Intelligence) in the 1990s, AQ (Agile Quotient) is the latest characteristic required by hiring managers looking to hire great talent. AQ is the ability to adapt quickly and consistently to changing circumstances – a highly desired skillset for client-facing roles in competitive, evolving industries.

Accessing agile candidates that are capable and thrive in evolving environments with shifting demands will be key to success in 2023 and beyond. 

Take Advantage of Transparency

At the beginning of 2023, 20% of U.S. workers will be covered under pay transparency laws, as California and Washington state join the movement. The European Commission is at the latter stages of agreeing similar directives across the EU. This change will require the inclusion of the pay range by law in all job descriptions. The salary range is generally one of the first items on the agenda for applicants looking to ensure the salary is acceptable to consider the role itself, as well as whether to commit to a potentially lengthy interview process. 

This presents employers with opportunities.

  1. If you can be more competitive than the competition you’ll attract more candidates
  2. Recruiters, Hiring Managers, Peers and Organizations will not waste time on unsuitable candidates based on the salary, 
  3. The candidates know the boundaries from the start – saving time when it comes to negotiations at the end. 

Colin Hickey leads the commercial department at Starcircle, working directly with talent leaders at some of the biggest companies in the world. If you’d like to connect please click here.

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