Three Talent Acquisition Trends to Kick-off 2023

Over the past three months, I sat down with over 30 Talent Acquisition leaders from various Fortune 500 customers of ours to discuss and build strategy to prepare for their hiring plans for 2023. As a former talent acquisition leader and someone that’s built strategies with hundreds of other TA leaders, I learned first-hand what strategic and tactical goals were front and center. Here are the key themes, initiatives, and talent acquisition trends they shared.

First the bad…

When Shakespeare wrote these famous words in Richard III, he likely had no idea he was being clairvoyant on the future state of the job market 500 years in the future. Yet it’s fitting as 2022 saw one of the largest amounts of layoffs in recent history. Per Trading Economics, “employers announced plans to cut 383,824 jobs in 2022,” with the tech sector being hit the hardest and laying off nearly 100,000 employees. Given the impact on many talent acquisition professionals, SilkRoad created a talent portal to actively help those in Talent Acquisition that have been laid off. If you or a talent acquisition professional you know has been impacted, please feel free to share the portal.

Then the good…

Traditionally the start of a new year is full of optimism, planning and hiring. As the ripple effects of 2022 have spilled into 2023, today’s talent acquisition leaders and teams enter the year with more on their plates than ever before. As these Chief People Officers, VPs and Directors are tasked to do more with less, innovation has become one of the most in-demand skill sets.

Here are the three talent acquisition trends leading the way in 2023:

1. Workforce planning

You can’t hire until you know what you need and whom you may lose. With layoffs affecting many companies, workforce planning has leaped to the top of the priority list. Today’s TA leadership is tasked with hitting their sourcing and hiring goals while also being cognizant of who else they may lose from key departments. Here are two trends that stood out.

• Leveraging technology to identify risk factors for regrettable attrition – both at the organizational level but also within the market and amongst competitors.
• Traditional Talent Acquisition org. charts are being reviewed and reimagined
  • Nearly 1/3 of the Talent Acquisition leaders I spoke to were in the state of reassessing their org structure.
  • For instance, many traditional organizations that rely solely on a large number of “do-it-all” recruiters were moving to a model that included sourcing (searching for and engaging with passive talent pools) as a vital component.

2. Strategic sourcing and talent pipelining

It’s no wonder teams are adding or investing in sourcing as we start 2023. With the events of the pandemic and the ability to work from anywhere, there’s never been a fiercer battle to source, engage and hire professionals. This trend has continued to accelerate for the past two years, and we see it gaining even more momentum in 2023.

Here are two trends that stood out:

• Modern talent acquisition teams are focusing efforts on hidden talent pools
  • With the surge of applicants, teams are being strategic in sourcing talent in these vital talent pools:
    • Previous applicants
      • Silver Medalists (those candidates that made it through the entire process but finished 2^nd or 3^rd)
  • Underrepresented talent pools
    • DE&I remains a top priority as many companies are starting to see progress from key hires to focus on these initiatives in the past two years

3. Internal mobility

Talent Acquisition is now becoming an equal partner to talent retention initiatives. With employees looking at each position as more of an internship than a life-long career, the most innovative companies are looking at ways to create internal career paths to keep their workforce engaged and part of their continued success. We know that the primary driver of attrition for the last several years has been the perceived lack of growth and development opportunities within the organization. The critical role that talent acquisition plays in internal mobility and employee retention will be creating programs to continuously attract employees to internal roles, gigs and project opportunities.

This can be accomplished by:

• Understanding what roles are or will be critical to the business and what skills those roles are comprised of
• Creating and maintaining a culture of internal mobility and engagement
• Establishing development and performance programs to reskill and upskill talent to prepare them to take on new roles
• Enacting employee engagement campaigns to highlight vertical AND lateral moves are a top priority as employers seek to retain their employees
• Crossboarding employees to new roles to drive time to contribution and productivity

In closing, after a tumultuous 2022, Talent Acquisition leaders are strategically preparing for success in 2023 by focusing on these key initiatives. If you’d like to find out more, watch our webinar where we take a deeper look at the trends driving talent acquisition in 2023 and beyond.