Hiring Trends for 2023

The first month of 2023 has still seen a shortage of candidates in the charity sector. However the current cost of living crisis is sure to have an effect on hiring, bringing potential budget cuts and recruitment freezes for some. So it’s difficult to predict how the hiring landscape will look as the year progresses. But there are some keys things that recruiters can explore to make the best of an uncertain situation. Here are five hiring trends for 2023 that we think employers will be focusing on:

Selling their brand to candidates

As talent has been scarce, recruiters have been refining their employer brand to attract and retain the best staff members. This includes making their position clear on the factors and issues that are influencing candidates, such as culture, sustainability, and diversity, equality and inclusion.

This is important not only for attracting new employees, but also for retaining existing ones. We predict an increased focus on employee retention, including improvements to onboarding processes and investing (in time, where budget isn’t available) in employee development. Charities will have to try harder to keep existing employees, as they may not be able to afford to replace those who leave.

The last few years have also showed us just how much candidates value flexibility—one study revealing that two thirds of employees would take a pay cut for an improved work/life balance. This is great news for charities, as with the current cost of living crisis, they may not be able to compete for candidates based on salary, but they can look at doing so based on flexible working.

Most importantly, to have the maximum impact, charities need to communicate their brand properly, to both prospective and existing employees—which is why we think this will become one of the key hiring trends for 2023.

Upskilling existing employees

If recruitment isn’t possible, either due to candidate shortages or budget restraints, then employers will need to focus on upskilling their existing employees to fill skills gaps. This is becoming known as ‘quiet hiring’ and can be done through promoting, seconding or training existing staff. Although this can be difficult to do on a budget, it will still cost a lot less than recruiting someone new. Investing in your existing employees can also help to increase your staff retention and employee engagement rates.

Watch out for overloading staff members though. Giving too many additional responsibilities without removing anything from existing workloads is a one-way ticket to employee burnout.

Broadening their talent pools

The candidate shortage of the last couple of years has made recruiters realise that just doing what they’ve always done will no longer necessarily get them the same results. One of the key things they need to do differently is to spread the net wider in terms of the talent pools they tap into. This coupled with an increased drive for diversity, equality and inclusion means that recruiters broadening their horizons when it comes to reaching candidates is likely to be another hiring trend for 2023.

There are many ways to attract more candidates including offering roles on a 100% remote basis, removing unnecessary requirements from job descriptions, properly balancing the role’s workload with the salary offered and being open to those from outside the sector. It can also help to reword job adverts to use inclusive language and to make it clear that you welcome applications from minority groups—this in particular can help with engaging passive candidates.

Hiring for soft skills

This is something else that has grown in importance thanks to the pandemic. The rise in remote and hybrid working means that the demand for softer ‘people’ skills to manage blended teams has increased. Managers need to help employees negotiate the challenges of work/life balance, burnout and general team-working around their normal duties.

Secondly, now having worked remotely for much of their career, younger employees in particular have missed out on learning lots of the soft skills that you naturally pick up in an office environment, such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. Therefore these skills are no longer a given and will be much-more highly sought after. We predict that charities will be looking for evidence of these in applications and interviews when recruiting.

Streamlining application processes

While we’ve been so heavily stuck in a candidates’ market, they’ve held the cards when it comes to recruitment. With potential employees unwilling to jump through as many hiring hoops as they might have done pre-pandemic, recruiters are realising that it’s becoming necessary to streamline processes.

Not only will you attract more potential employees by removing lengthy application forms and multiple recruitment stages, but the faster you can interview and make an offer, the more likely you are to lock in your first-choice candidate, and the more time and cost-efficient it is.

Not to mention the fact that the last few years have seen processes digitised at an even faster rate. This means candidates no longer have patience with clunky application forms that need uploading—they want to be able to apply from their phones in just a few clicks.

Wondering how to streamline your application processes? Why not try our screening questions feature? Post a job using Quick Apply and you can require candidates to answer a few quick screening questions, giving you the most important information you need for shortlisting, but without taking up much of their time.

Beginning with the backdrop of so much political turmoil, this year is likely to be another unpredictable one for recruitment. But whatever happens, if you consider these hiring trends for 2023 by focusing on your brand, your existing employees and optimising your recruitment process, then you’ll be in the very best position to succeed.