Hiring

After years of the market punctuated by layoffs, we look ahead to 2024 with cautious optimism. Let’s start with data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and analysis from CompTIA which show tech industry employment growth for the start of 2024.

In January, the US tech industry grew significantly, with tech companies adding nearly 18K employees. The strongest gains were in technology services/software development and cloud infrastructure. 

This positive trend was reflected in a rebound of employer job postings for open positions. Employers posted over 392K active job listings for tech-related roles, with nearly 178K new postings in January. This represents a significant increase from December 2023, marking the largest month-over-month rise in a year. 

Hired predicts hiring will accelerate in 2024, especially in big companies (but not like in early 2022).

“There will be a resurgence in hiring, and the companies that made sizable investments into their tech stacks will have a higher advantage of landing key talent,” says Hired CEO Josh Brenner.

“Efficiency will continue to be paramount as companies move forward into 2024. So whether it’s expanding recruiter capacity or loosening budgets for hiring managers, those who’ve invested in a supportive tech stack will help their internal teams secure their top candidates the most.”

Related: Build a Recruiter Capacity Model 

Hired surveyed 250+ tech employers in Q4 of 2023, and the majority,  84%, expected to maintain or increase employee headcount budgets in 2024. More than half, or 53%, expected to increase. 

Responses indicated companies with between 101 and 299 employees are most likely to increase budgets. 

When divided by role, 69% of hiring leaders or executives indicated budget increases while 60% of hiring managers and 33% of TA/Recruiters agreed.

They’ll need to hire too, because 61% of tech workers surveyed plan to look for a new role in 2024.

Editor’s Note: Hired surveyed 1000+ tech workers as well.

Related: Cost of Vacancy: Why Hiring During Downturns is a Good Idea 

Hired’s CEO on ramping up hiring again in 2024

On an episode of Talk Talent to Me, Hired CEO Josh Brenner looked ahead at 2024 hiring while reflecting on the recent market. He says, “I want to be clear that we have been through this interesting journey over the past five years. 

I think the ‘resurgence’ is not to be confused with the rapid scaling we saw post-pandemic, starting in the spring of 2021. The resurgence I’m talking about is more like a pre-pandemic pace than the rapid period we saw from 2021 to 2022.”

He feels optimistic for this year, especially given the survey response on expanding headcount budgets for 2024. 

Josh noted he’s seeing “some companies, especially the smaller ones, realize that real growth is still important. While managing your costs is important for a small business, they need to show growth or it doesn’t make sense to be in business. We see some of that swinging back around with companies backfilling hires and pulling forward new initiatives.”

Which industries are hiring tech talent now?

Josh shared that Hired’s data indicates that “financial services companies are back in full swing. In a lot of ways, larger tech companies, while they have very publicly been shedding employees are also hiring on the opposite side of that. 

Startups, especially those focused on AI, machine learning, and the surrounding ecosystem have gotten a vast majority of the funding over the past year. As you can imagine, the need to hire comes with that funding.”

Josh’s optimism and his belief that tech is still an exciting opportunity and steady industry for people to grow their careers is reflected in recent stats on the unemployment rate. Tech occupations remained stable at 2.3%, while the national unemployment rate remained at 3.7%. 

Ready to restart recruitment?

When it’s time to fire up hiring again, knowing where to start may seem overwhelming. Follow this short checklist and check out our full guide to kickstart your tech hiring after challenging economic times with this guide.

Reevaluate hiring needs

Engage with past candidates

Update online employer profiles

Revise recruitment strategy

Review salary benchmarks

Plan for onboarding

Measure effectiveness regularly More

Fifth in the Tech Employers Leading the Way Series

Editor’s Note: Tech Employers Leading the Way recognizes companies that innovate and work to improve the hiring experience for both their hiring managers and the tech candidates they seek. In this series, we’ll dive into what works for them and what they’ve learned. Sharing these stories and learnings supports our company vision to make hiring more equitable, efficient, and transparent.

Hired’s List of 2023 Top Employers Winning Tech Talent highlighted companies across a variety of segments and industries creating tech hiring processes and experiences embracing principles such as equity, efficiency, and transparency. 

Among those leading the way is AutoFi, which improved its 2022 rank of 40th on 2022’s List of Top Employers Winning Tech Talent to 10th overall on our 2023 list of North American small businesses (1-299 employees). 

Meagan Dion, Lead Technical Recruiter, shares how AutoFi maintains a strong employer brand and builds its talent pipeline.

About AutoFi

AutoFi is the leading provider of sales and finance technology in the automotive industry, driving innovation by simplifying the way cars are bought and sold. We empower automotive clients, such as car dealers, manufacturers, marketplaces, and lenders, with cutting-edge technology that creates a seamless and efficient car buying experience. 

Joining us means being part of a dynamic team shaping the future of automotive retail, where your contributions directly impact the way people buy and sell cars. We foster a collaborative environment encouraging creativity and growth, making AutoFi an exciting place to work and be part of something transformative.

What are some of AutoFi’s strategies for maintaining a strong employer brand?

Maintaining a strong employer brand involves showcasing a positive work culture and emphasizing employee development. It’s important to be transparent about company values and achievements. Offering competitive benefits, promoting work-life balance, and creating a collaborative environment helps attract top tech talent. 

As businesses evolve, talent strategies do too. How have your strategies shifted in the last 12 months? How do you plan to shift your strategies in 2024? 

Hiring strategies have shifted toward optimizing existing talent and leveraging technology for efficiency. Due to current market conditions, we are more focused on strategic workforce planning and recruiting has shifted to focusing on building talent pipelines and using contractors. 

Related: Need to upskill your team? Hired partners with several organizations to provide skills training, including our sister company, General Assembly. 

How has Hired supported your hiring strategy?

Hired has provided a curated pool of top tech talent. It has helped accelerate the hiring pipeline, enhance our employer brand, and attract specialized talent to contribute to building a high-performing tech team. 

Related: See how Hired has helped customers of all sizes achieve success

Check out all the featured tech employers in the series so far: 

Firstup Puts People First to Help Companies Speed Up

One Medical Focuses on Authenticity in the Candidate Experience

Veho’s Multi-Faceted and Candidate-Centric Interview Process for Better Alignment

Cisco Turns Talent Acquisition Professionals into Talent Advisors More

Tension over return-to-office mandates & fewer remote roles creates a ripple of the ‘Great Resignation’ for 2024

In 2021 and 2022, the majority of tech talent wanted the remote work experience. Then, there was a shift in candidate attitudes on workplace preferences. With the layoffs and tightening of the labor market, Hired platform data indicated many candidates changed their preferences to be more open to a hybrid or in-person model. Were they tired of being at home or working from anywhere? Or were they reading the room?

According to Hired tech recruiting marketplace data, employers have steadily decreased the roles open to remote work. After a high of 72% of open roles classified as “open to remote,” in Q2 of 2022, a year later it was only 59%, then only 46% at year-end. As we enter 2024, the percentage continues to drop.

Meanwhile, much of the tech worker preference still sits with a truly remote work environment or a very flexible hybrid model according to Samantha Friedman, Hired SVP People Strategy. 

Hired candidate profiles show tech workers who prefer “remote only” roles peaked at 34% in Q2 of 2022 but have flattened since, fluctuating between 28% and 31%. However, when surveyed for their preference in The Tech Hiring Tightrope, 80% of tech workers said they’d prefer to work fully remotely. 

This has led employees to seek opportunities aligned with their true preferences. 

Hired predicts the tug-of-war between employers and tech workers on the workplace will worsen, leading to a hidden tech talent pool.

You may have heard of “quiet quitting” or even “rage applying,” but what about “quiet applying?”

“Return-to-office (RTO) mandates from companies such as Roblox, Amazon, and others have already been a polarizing topic within the workforce, as employees face the option of commuting or finding another job,” says Sam Friedman.

Return-to-office threatens DEIB

“As more companies reverse their policies, many organizations will further erode any commitments to DEI. This is because women, people with disabilities, and other underrepresented groups are most negatively affected by return-to-office mandates.” 

In Hired’s webinar, Bold Predictions & Benchmarks: Master Tech Hiring in 2024, Sam Friedman explained, “A return to office or a strict hybrid model limits DEI opportunities. For instance, I’m sick right now and I have two little kids. We see that hybrid and full return to office is very much impacting those default parents, which are women. We also see those with disabilities [and other barriers] not wanting that return to office schedule. 

Hired data supports this and highlights a significant trend: 85% of surveyed women prefer fully remote roles, compared to 78% of men. 

In tech, women are already underrepresented, and about half tend to leave the field by age 35. This means the option to work remotely is a prerequisite for fostering equal opportunities, and not just a “nice-to-have.”

Sam adds, “While people want a job and are fighting in this tough market, at the end of the day, there will be a new market that opens up for people who really want to ensure flexibility and autonomy over their schedule.” 

A hidden tech talent pool

This, among other factors, will create a rise in “not-so-passive candidates” in a hidden tech talent pool, who would move to an opportunity in line with their workplace environment desires.

Related: 2023 Survey Results: Top 3 Benefits Ranked by Engineers (Besides Salary) 

In fact, 21% of men surveyed and 27% of women surveyed said they’re unhappy with their current work environment and actively looking because of it. 

Interestingly, 32% of surveyed in-office workers are actively looking for new remote or hybrid roles. This underscores the urgency for organizations to strategically embrace a remote-first working model, or at a minimum, more flexible working conditions. 

When surveying employers on their hiring plans for 2024, Hired found the majority of companies, 50%, plan to hire hybrid roles, while 22% are opting for in-office, and only 17% fully remote. 

What are the main drivers of the RTO trend? Surveyed employers in the 2023 State of Tech Salaries reported that a physical work environment offers more optimal conditions for enhanced collaboration, culture immersion, improved communication, and easier IT training and mentoring. 

A shift in power

Anna Papalia, founder of Interviewology, shared on the Talk Talent to Me podcast, “Quiet quitting is just a term for something that’s been going on forever. I think directors of talent are trying to figure out how, as talent folks, to be now. We don’t have the power the way we did before. And that’s unsettling to a lot of people. 

You can either hold on to your shred of power or you can let go and evolve. And I think that’s what this moment is calling for us to do.”

Ultimately, companies that are receptive to employee preferences will be better positioned to attract top talent, harness broader skill sets, and embrace richer, diverse perspectives in a time where maintaining a competitive edge is pivotal to driving innovation.  More

Fourth in the Tech Employers Leading the Way Series

Editor’s Note: Tech Employers Leading the Way recognizes companies that innovate and work to improve the hiring experience for both their hiring managers and the tech candidates they seek. In this series, we’ll dive into what works for them, and what they’ve learned, and share it with our readers. Sharing these stories and learnings supports our company vision to make hiring more equitable, efficient, and transparent.

Hired’s List of 2023 Top Employers Winning Tech Talent highlighted companies across a variety of segments and industries creating tech hiring processes and experiences embracing principles such as equity, efficiency, and transparency. 

Among those leading the way is Cisco, an enterprise facilitating connections through innovative software-defined networking, cloud, and security solutions. Cisco ranked 7th overall, among large enterprises, thanks to scores placing them 6th in Equity, 8th in Efficiency, and 10th in Transparency categories. 

Mian Fouché, Director, Join & Connect (People, Policy, & Purpose), shares the power of transforming Talent Acquisition (TA) pros into talent advisors who act as strategic business partners and enhance the hiring process. 

Tell us about Cisco

Cisco enables people to make powerful connections. Our hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create the Internet solutions that make networks possible — providing easy access to information anywhere, at any time. 

We know that powering an inclusive future starts with us. Because without diversity and a dedication to equality, there is no moving forward. Our 30 Inclusive Communities, which unite people around commonalities or passions, lead the way.

Together, we’re committed to learning, listening, and caring for our communities while supporting the most vulnerable with a collective effort to make this world a better place either with technology or through our actions.  In 2023, we surpassed our goal to positively impact 1 billion people, more than one-eighth of the world’s population through our social impact grants and signature programs outlined in our Purpose Report.

Cisco didn’t just build the Internet. We keep building it. And while our technology helps connect the unconnected, that’s not where our edge comes from. It comes from our people—unique, innovative, and diverse. #WeAreCisco

Tell us about a process you implemented to improve candidate experience and the hiring process

Within our security teams, we implemented a structured interview process. We continue to iterate on it based both on feedback from candidates and hiring leaders. The idea is to create a more condensed and intentional process for mutual exploration of role fit between the candidate and the hiring team. 

This not only improves efficiency but leaves room for all parties to get a clear understanding of the role in question and team alignment. We want candidates to complete the process with an understanding of how the position fits into our long-term strategy, and whether this aligns with their ultimate career aspirations. 

What are some of Cisco’s strategies for maintaining a strong employer brand?

Cisco maintains the WeAreCisco blog where candidates can discover our values and read about real-life experiences from our employees. Cisco’s team of talent advisors and business leaders are also encouraged to maintain a strong presence on LinkedIn and other social media platforms to tell their stories. 

We want people to have the opportunity to understand a day in the life of a ‘Cisconian.’ This allows them to understand if our values align with their needs. For instance, Cisco provides employees with generous volunteer time off so employees can focus on the causes that matter most to them. 

Since the Great Resignation, there’s been a shift in priorities for many, if not most, professionals in tech and other fields. Candidates tell us health, wellness, and work-life balance matter to them. 

By creating the space for our employees to tell their stories, we hope to provide a behind-the-curtain look at our employee experience. We understand candidate experience doesn’t end with the conclusion of the interview, but spans into what we would hope to be a long and prosperous career with the organization. 

How has collaboration between hiring managers and TA teams improved efficiency?

Here at Cisco, we encourage our talent acquisition professionals to think and act as talent advisors, not only to candidates but also to hiring leaders. We understand that hiring the best people starts with strong collaboration within the organization, and is a team sport. 

We strive to constantly upskill our talent advisors to enhance their competencies in business acumen, operational excellence, and data literacy. That way, they’re able to act as strategic partners to the business as opposed to simply operating as a transactional support function. 

This drives alignment and partnerships, resulting in an expedited hiring process for the candidate. It also equips the talent advisor with information and details to help candidates come prepared when they meet with our hiring teams.

As businesses evolve, talent strategies do too. How have your strategies shifted in the last 12 months? How do you plan to shift your strategies in 2024? 

Over the last few years, we’ve observed a directional shift from education-based hiring to a more skills-based approach. As this continues to evolve, we anticipate the necessity to adjust the way we evaluate talent. 

This is especially true with the rise in emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, and a global focus on improving cybersecurity tooling, with a lot of uncharted territory to traverse. 

I foresee this will necessitate that we look at various avenues to address skill shortages in these areas via mechanisms like upskilling and reskilling existing talent with adjacent skill sets.

Related: Hired partners with several organizations offering upskilling and other intensive training programs. See the directory of partners.

How has Hired supported your hiring strategy?

Our partnership with Hired has been invaluable as we strive to build a world-class, technical organization when we have critical needs that require expedited hiring. Hired has a slate of thoroughly vetted candidates who are ready to go to market. 

In providing data and insights on market availability by skills, experience, and geography, Hired has allowed us to influence business decisions based on what the market can provide at any given point in time. They’ve also been able to provide us with exploratory services to determine how we can best leverage the platform for different skills and in various locations. 

With fast and effective training for new users of their highly intuitive and user-friendly platform, and monthly reporting on usage and effectiveness, we can use tangible data to maximize the return on investment we garner from our partnership with them. Offering extreme flexibility on license assignments as our needs and resourcing evolve, their agility is a tremendous asset in the ever-changing tech landscape. 

Finally, the ability to partner with hiring leaders directly on the Hired platform drives efficiency, strengthens our relationships and partnerships with our business leaders, and inspires mutual accountability, for an optimized hiring process.

Check out all the featured tech employers in the series so far: 

Firstup Puts People First to Help Companies Speed Up

One Medical Focuses on Authenticity in the Candidate Experience

Veho’s Multi-Faceted and Candidate-Centric Interview Process for Better Alignment More

Hired’s Talk Talent to Me podcast started 2024 with a bang! Listen in on these episodes featuring recruiting and talent acquisition leadership plus a special episode with Hired’s CEO. They share strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry.

Talent insights with Ali Bebo, CHRO at Pearson

Recruitment, tech hiring, and talent strategies with Jim Hemgen, Director of Talent Development at Booz Allen Hamilton

2024 tech hiring predictions with Josh Brenner, CEO of Hired

Being mission-driven with Ryan Loken, Head of HR Policy & Governance at Tyson Foods

1. Ali Bebo, CHRO at Pearson

In talent acquisition, future-proofing is as important as focusing on the present. Ali discusses how talent acquisition has changed since she got started, the role of AI in the industry, and why managers should avoid being passive in team building. Ali thinks talent recruitment is much like coaching a sports team. In this episode, she explains how the two jobs are similar. She also shares her experience in helping her company hire a new CEO before she leaves us with some incredible advice about knowing your superpower.

“What can you do better than 10,000 people? Once you can really answer that question, then you find roles and opportunities where there’s less friction. Because when you’re in a role that you’re able to use your best strengths and get to do what you do best every day, then frankly, performance happens.” 

Listen to the full episode.

2. Jim Hemgen, Director of Talent Development at Booz Allen Hamilton

Jim breaks down Booz Allen’s approach to recruitment and talent development, why hiring tech talent is so competitive, and what they are doing to set themselves apart. He also discusses how they cultivate a culture of continuous learning, using data and predictive analytics for workforce planning, and the most effective retention strategies.

“I highly encourage soliciting a mentor from an outside organization. Find somebody who’s in a role you aspire to be in and get engaged in conversations. It goes a long way.”

Listen to the full episode.

3. Josh Brenner, CEO of Hired

The last year has been tough on all fronts when it comes to tech recruiting and hiring. Josh shares his predictions for hiring in 2024. He discusses tech hiring resurgence, AI, layoffs, and the debate on remote, hybrid, and in-office work.

“Companies that have the best teams are the most successful, and you, as the talent professional, are the ones that are helping companies build those best-in-class teams.”

Listen to the full episode.

4. Ryan Loken, Head of HR Policy & Governance at Tyson Foods

Ryan shares his multifaceted role within the company, his broader impact on the community, and the dynamics of HR. He dives into the community outreach work he is involved in, how he leverages the company for good, and his motivation for pursuing community outreach. Ryan also shares why HR professionals are no longer compliance police, why he chases the mission and not the title, and the interconnectedness of company policy and culture.

“I have never chased a title. I have always chased a mission.”

Listen to the full episode.

Want more insights into recruiting tips and trends?

Tune into Hired’s podcast, Talk Talent to Me, to learn about the strategies, techniques, and trends shaping the recruitment industry—straight from top experts themselves. More

Josh Brenner on the Talk Talent to Me podcast

Last year was challenging on all fronts within tech recruiting and hiring, so what’s next? To discuss his predictions for 2024, Hired CEO Josh Brenner visited the Talk Talent to Me podcast. Based on The Future of Tech Hiring: 8 Bold Predictions for 2024, he shares his thoughts on a tech hiring resurgence, AI, layoffs, and the RTO/remote debate. Get a sneak peek of the episode below and listen to the full conversation here. 

There were lots of layoffs happening…You seem to think there’s going to be a resurgence in hiring this year. I’d love to know why you think that’s the case.

Josh Brenner

I want to be clear that we have been through this really interesting journey over the past five years. I think the ‘resurgence’ is not to be confused with the rapid scaling we saw post-pandemic, starting in the spring of 2021. The resurgence I’m talking about is more like a pre-pandemic pace than the rapid period we saw from 2021 to 2022. 

We’re feeling optimistic for 2024 because we took a survey from hiring managers, recruiters, and tech leaders. Overwhelmingly, the response was that their budgets for headcount in 2024 will expand. We’re also seeing that companies have been in this strange place where they’ve pulled back. As a result, they started to see the growth rates slow down and their ability to achieve their digital transformation goals, in a lot of cases slowed down as a result. 

We’re starting to see some companies, especially the smaller ones, realize that real growth is still important. While managing your costs is important for a small business, they need to show growth, or doesn’t make a lot of sense for them to be in business. We see some of that swinging back around with companies backfilling hires and pulling forward new initiatives. We strongly believe the tech industry is still a really exciting opportunity for people to grow their careers.

Who are the companies who are well set up to rehire or increase their headcounts?

Josh Brenner

I’m not going to name specific names but we have data across a large portion of those companies. We’re seeing financial services companies are back in full swing. In a lot of ways, larger tech companies, while they have very publicly been shedding employees are also hiring on the opposite side of that. 

Startups, especially those focused on AI, machine learning, and all of the surrounding ecosystem have gotten a vast majority of the funding over the past year. As you can imagine, with that funding comes the need to hire.

A survey response revealed that 68% of tech employers would feel confident rehiring employees they laid off, while only 15% of unemployed workers would definitely accept a job from an employer who laid them off. 

Do you think people should not go back to employers that laid them off? Or should jobseekers swallow their pride and get their old job back?

Josh Brenner

That’s a really good question. My thinking on why the companies are so interested in taking the people back is maybe self-explanatory. But I think it’s also worth mentioning there are a lot of benefits to having boomerang employees. They’re vetted in the sense that you’ve already made the decision once to hire them. They clearly have a value fit with the company and were a strong contributor to the team. There’s obviously a lot less ramping up needed to get them back into the company. 

I understand why companies would be excited about having people back. I know a lot of companies across the board had to make extremely tough decisions when making these cuts. A lot of the people they had to let go of were people they didn’t want to see gone. 

Related: Why You Should be Recruiting Laid Off Talent (+ 3 Key Strategies) 

On the employee side, it goes back to the pandemic. Talent used that opportunity while we were in lockdown to kind of reprioritize and reevaluate what they were looking for in a company and employer. We left that period with talent being even more focused on making sure they had a really strong connection with the mission, vision, and values a company had. They wanted to be part of something bigger. They didn’t want to just be coming in and clocking in and out. People that are happy at work are happy at home. And the reverse is true, too. It really impacts your whole life. 

All that being said, one of the key pieces of that connection talent has to companies when looking at the values is trust. They want to feel like they can trust their employer. A lot of companies took a lot of care when they did reductions. They tried to help people get other jobs and do the right thing by talent. Those employers are going to have a much easier time getting those boomerangs back. They live the values they talk about as a company. 

On the flip side, there were also a lot of companies – more often than not – that didn’t do the right thing by employees they let go. The companies that handled those layoffs poorly will have a very small chance of getting any of those employees back. They have their challenge cut out for them. Not only are they not going to be able to get the boomerang employees back, but they really need to focus on their recruiting efforts. 

Because those companies now have employer branding issues. People talk, use social media, and check company review sites like Glassdoor and Blind. People will look at those things. Talent teams now have a hard job within those companies to rebuild trust with jobseekers. 

I suggest those companies be very upfront in the recruiting process. They should share why things went down the way they did, what they learned from that, and how they plan to stick to their values going forward. It’s interesting to see such a low percentage (at 15%) of people saying they would go back. I think a lot of it has to do with how companies handle layoffs in this round. More

What do industry experts predict for tech recruitment this year? In this on-demand webinar, you’ll learn what to expect in 2024, what benchmarks they turn to (especially in what’s expected to be another whirlwind year), and where the inescapable topic of AI fits into it all. 

Related: The Future of Tech Hiring: 8 Bold Predictions for 2024 

Hear from:

SVP of People Strategy, Hired, Sam Friedman

VP of Strategic Consulting, Criteria, Brad Schneider 

Director of Talent and Recruitment, Collective Health, Dana Dillard

Community and Talent Acquisition Advisory Lead, Ashby, Shannon Ogborn

Read an excerpt of the conversation here and scroll down to access the full webinar. 

What is one bold prediction or hot take on how tech hiring will change in 2024?

Dana Dillard

Hot takes of 2024 seems to be a very big discussion topic in our industry right now. From a recruitment perspective, I think a lot about the importance of elevating the candidate experience. I think we can all agree we’ve got some work to do as a TA function in helping candidates have a great experience no matter who they’re interacting with, no matter the outcome.

We need to make sure we’re elevating the experience and helping candidates understand the mission of the companies they’re considering and what’s in it for them. Candidates have been through a lot. There’s been a lot of uncertainty. A lot of people have gone through layoffs for the first time in their careers or have seen friends and colleagues get impacted.

Anchoring on connecting with candidates, elevating the experience, and helping them understand the value you’re offering will be critical this year.

Brad Schneider

I think tech hiring will pick up. I view it like a pendulum. When the Fed rate was low and money was cheap, there was a mentality of growth at any cost. There was an enormous amount of hiring, especially in tech. As interest rates increased, it became more and more expensive to borrow. Some organizations couldn’t get loans. There was a need to become profitable and to do so quickly was through layoffs. So you had a tremendous number of layoffs in the tech space.

People say the one constant is change. A lot of that change is driven by advances in technology. You need people to build that technology and you need people to service it. Salespeople, customer service reps, engineers, and so on. Artificial intelligence is getting really exciting and hot now. Tech companies once again will lead the way in cutting-edge technology. That will lead to more recruiting. I think there will be a turnaround in the second half of this year.

Sam Friedman

My bold take is that we will see a new talent market emerge. A lot of what TA professionals are working with right now is a push to scale back on either fully remote or hybrid schedules. We’re seeing this return to the office.

You’ve had previously happy employees who’ve had that flexibility start to pick their heads up. They might be in great jobs, like the pay they’re receiving, or like the brands they are working for. But I believe that return-to-office will ultimately create this new talent marketplace. Those individuals who still want that flexibility and to be in charge of their day-to-day will pick their heads up for opportunities where they previously had it.

Watch the full collaborative panel discussion to discover:

How to facilitate a mindful selection process using AI and assessments

The importance of authentic employer branding 

How to elevate the candidate experience 

Insights into remote work and workplace flexibility  More