7 hiring trends for 2024

Hiring is on the cusp of a total makeover – whether you’re ready for it or not. Traditional recruitment practices don’t lend to remote hiring, fair selection, evolving skills, and other future of work needs – making companies reconsider how they discover new talent.  

Sticking to old ways can cause you to miss out on top candidates and fall behind the competition. But with everything moving so quickly, knowing which trends are simply fads and which are here to stay is tough. Imagine putting all your time and money into a new practice, and boom – it changes. Scary, right? 

Well, don’t sweat it. We’ve done the legwork and identified seven hiring trends that are here to stay. Adopting these practices will help you to navigate the changing landscape and land the best talent in the market.

7 hiring trends to implement today

Embrace the following practices to find and recruit the best talent for your company.   

1. Take advantage of cooling labor markets

2. Focus on internal hiring

3. Hire for skills, not positions 

4. Replace pointless resumes with skills-based hiring 

5. Embrace virtual hiring

6. Adapt benefits to reflect modern needs

7. Use AI ethically and transparently

1. Take advantage of cooling labor markets

A recent report by the SHRM suggests that in line with the end of 2023, US labor markets are expected to continue cooling in 2024. Companies will focus more on backfilling open roles they struggled to fill during tight labor market conditions rather than adding too many new jobs. 

Additionally, layoffs are expected to continue into 2024, especially in the tech industry. Some of this is due to companies correcting themselves after post-pandemic hiring sprees, during which they recruited many employees in response to the temporary tech boom. 

For others, cost-cutting, mergers and acquisitions, the rise of AI, and increased outsourcing have made employees’ roles redundant. 

All this means the number of job openings and job postings in 2024 will decline, leading to fewer opportunities for candidates and a potential increase in unemployment rates. 

Here’s how to make the most of this situation. 

Expand talent pools

With more individuals looking for jobs, you can widen your search to include candidates who weren’t available previously – for instance, skilled individuals who were laid off from their jobs, employees looking for career changes, and so on. 

Focus on hiring quality candidates 

More labor supply in the market also means you can be more selective. Over the last few years, you likely made some rushed hires – or mis-hires – in response to talent shortages, and you’re still susceptible to this if you’re trying to backfill open roles. 

Resist the urge to rush decisions and focus instead on finding the right candidates – properly assessing them for skills, culture add, and long-term potential. 

Build a talent pipeline

Even if you’re not hiring now, you can – and should –  take advantage of talent availability. For example, you could engage with potential candidates through networking events, social media, and professional forums to build your talent pipeline so you can mobilize quickly when positions open up. 

2. Focus on internal hiring

Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace Report found that of 100,000 global participants, over 50%  are considering quitting their jobs.

While most specialists talk about how this impacts the external job market, our recent conversation with HR Expert Yashna Wahal shed light on how this could lead to more internal hiring. Here’s what we chatted about. 

Internal mobility will help to retain top talent 

Gallup, a global analytics and advisory firm, found that the lack of career development and advancement opportunities is one of the biggest reasons for employee departures. Here’s Wahal’s take: 

Today’s workforce wants to make moves. But this doesn’t necessarily mean they’re looking for promotions. So many employees simply want new roles or a change of pace to keep them on their toes, help them upskill, and support their growth. 

Offering internal mobility opportunities helps you engage and retain your best people. 

Redeployment programs will lead to powerful and cost-efficient hiring 

A recent survey showed that over 90% of companies are considering downsizing in 2024. 63% of these companies are prepared to offer redeployment programs, with 40% stating that redeployment is their most anticipated action. 

In case you missed it – redeployment is the process of moving employees to other roles within the company instead of laying them off. 

At TestGorilla, we strongly recommend assessing employees’ skills carefully to see if you can use them elsewhere in your company before letting your employees go. For instance, you could redeploy a customer success manager into a sales role with just a bit of additional training. 

Your current employees already know your company and understand your offerings, and they don’t need to be onboarded from scratch. Plus, you avoid the costs of hiring externally. 

Cooling wages will help keep employees within their companies  

Sharing her personal experiences, Wahal recounted, “I’ve lost count of how many employees say they’re leaving their job to get a pay bump in another company.” 

It’s true – employees usually receive higher pay when they move externally rather than internally. 

But with labor markets stabilizing, SHRM predicts that most employers are lowering their wage budgets – so employees might not get the same salary increases as before. This gives you a better shot at offering smaller increases in pay or providing internal mobility, flexible working, and more to retain talent. 

3. Hire for skills, not positions

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report for 2023 revealed some fascinating insights into the future of hiring: 

Environmental, technological, and economic trends will drive hiring

Green investments, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) initiatives, climate change policies, and technological advancements will have the biggest impact on jobs. While some job loss is expected due to these trends, businesses expect a net increase in jobs in these areas. 

We can expect hiring to increase in these specific job areas.

• AI and machine learning

• Sustainability 

• Business intelligence 

• Information security 

• Renewable energy

Employers will look for soft skills and cognitive abilities when selecting candidates

Despite anticipated growth in the above technical areas, employers say cognitive skills like analytical and creative thinking are the most important skills for the foreseeable future. These are closely followed by:

• Resilience, flexibility, and agility

• Motivation and self-awareness 

• Curiosity and desire for lifelong learning 

There’s less clarity on future roles and positions

About a quarter of today’s jobs will change significantly over the next five years. Although it’s clear which industries are expected to grow, there’s no way to know what positions or job titles there will be. 

Out with the jobs, in with the skills 

With jobs evolving so fast, companies are more confident about the hard and soft skills they’ll need in the future and less sure about what their organizational chart will look like. For instance, they know they’ll need employees with digital marketing skills, but they probably don’t know if their marketing manager role will last. 

We at TestGorilla expect companies to move towards hiring and building a skills-based workforce. This means applicants will be hired for their skill sets rather than job titles that may become obsolete. 

4. Replace pointless resumes with skills-based hiring 

Will 2024 bring us closer to the end of the resume? We surveyed over 2,000 employers to learn more about their recruitment practices, and here’s what we found: 

Employers can’t rely on resumes for effective hiring.  

• 87% said they experienced problems using resumes as a screening tool 

• 51% struggled to verify resumes’ accuracy 

• 43% found ranking applicants using resumes difficult

• 43% also found determining candidates’ skills from resumes difficult

More companies are turning to skills-based hiring.

Skills-based hiring refers to making hiring decisions based on applicants’ skills rather than what they look like on paper. In this approach, you test candidates’ real capabilities instead of relying on snazzy qualifications and seemingly impressive but difficult-to-verify backgrounds.  

We found that 73% of companies used skills-based hiring methods in 2023, up from 56% in 2022. Ninety-two percent found skills-based hiring was more effective at identifying talent compared to resumes, 89% felt it was more accurate at predicting job success, and 82% said it helped them hire employees who stuck around long term. 

That’s not all – 90% of employers found that skills-based hiring positively impacted diversity in their hiring processes in 2024.

Discover top talent with a skills-based approach 

A truly skills-based hiring approach prioritizes skills at every stage of the hiring process. 

Forbes recently suggested that many employers and some state governments are dropping college degree requirements from their job postings and shifting towards skills-based recruiting. We expect more companies to do this in 2024 by creating job descriptions focusing on skills – not credentials. 

Additionally, we predict that more employers will use talent assessments to screen applicants rather than relying on resumes and cover letters. Talent assessments refer to ways of evaluating your candidates’ skills. They include online tests you can roll out to candidates at the time of their application. You can use these tests to discover which candidates have the job-specific skills you seek. 

Importantly, talent assessments look beyond skills and knowledge, assessing candidates for their cognitive abilities, personality traits, and cultural contributions. 

Adam Jacobs, CEO and Managing Director at Hunter Talent, echoed the importance of this – 

“There's a growing recognition that a successful hire isn't solely about skills or experience. Personality and culture fit are becoming paramount. In 2024, I anticipate a broader adoption of testing that evaluates these aspects, ensuring candidates excel in their roles and thrive within the organizational culture.”

There’s no doubt that skills-based hiring processes are on the rise. Adopting them can help you hire better and fairer – and find talent that leaps off the page. 

5. Embrace virtual hiring 

In 2023, about 13% of full-time employees had completely remote jobs, while 28% worked in hybrid structures. Additionally, 62% of employers offered some sort of flexibility at work by November 2023, up from 51% at the start of the year. 

However, when we spoke to HR expert Medi Jones, she painted a different picture for the year ahead, suggesting that a “return to office is likely to be a key hiring trend for 2024.”

While the return-to-the-office debate does continue, we believe more employers will embrace virtual hiring in 2024 – regardless of their company’s stance on work arrangements. Here’s why. 

• Virtual hiring gives you access to a much wider talent pool, including candidates who can’t easily commute to in-person interviews. 

• You won’t need to reimburse travel expenses for candidates to attend on-site interviews. 

• This encourages more candidates to apply, as they won’t need to take time off from their existing jobs.  

However, a lack of insight into nonverbal cues, technical issues, and challenges with verifying candidates’ identities can make recruiters nervous. Here are some strategies to get ahead of virtual recruitment in 2024 and hire confidently.  

• Use talent assessments. While candidates conveniently take online talent assessments from home, you get hard, objective data to verify their skills and suitability.  

• Conduct structured virtual interviews. Structured interviews, defined by fixed sets of carefully crafted questions, can help you dig deeper into candidates’ competencies, assess if they mesh well with your company’s people and culture, and better predict job success. 

• Run background checks and ask for references during the final hiring stages. This way, you can spot and address any red flags before hiring candidates. 

6. Adapt benefits to reflect modern needs 

Gallup recently asked over 13,000 US workers about what drove their decisions to accept new job offers. Results showed that a significant increase in income or benefits and greater work-life balance and well-being were job seekers’ top priorities.  

With the job market cooling and a recession still possible, companies are expected to have lower salary budgets in 2024. 

Without big pay increases in the works, we believe employers will improve the benefits they offer potential candidates. We expect to see more of the following company benefits. 

4-day workweek 

Some employers have adopted four-day workweeks to provide employees with greater flexibility and work-life balance. Kate Stacey, legal writer, shared her thoughts about how this benefit can also attract diverse candidates:

“Women typically bear the greater share of caregiving responsibilities, which can force some to take lower-paid jobs or part-time work when returning to the workforce. A four-day workweek offers more flexibility for women and opportunities for men to take on a larger share of family caregiving.” 

Childcare benefits 

Several employers have turned to childcare benefits like on-site childcare, childcare subsidies, and flexible working arrangements to attract working parents, especially women. 

In fact, companies like JPMorgan and Patagonia estimated a 91% and 115% return on their investment in childcare benefits. 

Savings programs  

A few companies offer to deposit a portion of workers’ paychecks into a separate savings account. A recent survey showed that 75% of employees would consider such a program, and nearly 100% would opt in if employers matched their contributions. 

Health insurance 

While health insurance in the US isn’t a unique benefit, it’s complex and expensive, so it can be a magnet for good applicants. One study showed that employer-sponsored health insurance plans drove candidates’ decisions to accept a job offer 46% of the time. 

7. Use AI ethically and transparently

Enrico Buratto, Product Designer at TestGorilla, shared insights into how AI is shaping hiring in 2024: 

“I think that in 2024, businesses will continue to increase the use of AI automation tools for HR. AI and automation can handle repetitive and time-consuming tasks in the recruitment process, allowing teams to focus on more strategic and high-value aspects. This saves them time and enhances the quality of the hiring process.” 

The use of AI in recruiting isn’t news. Forty-three percent of HR professionals are already using AI in hiring, and there’s evidence that AI-based resume screening, candidate matching, predictive analysis, candidate communications, and video interviews can help you improve efficiency, reduce costs, and make better hires. 

But the latest studies have also illuminated growing concerns about AI tools’ objectivity, accuracy, and lack of transparency in how they work, with some worrying these tools can introduce and perpetuate biases in hiring. 

In fact, research shows that over a third of recruiters are concerned about AI excluding qualified candidates from the application process. And they’re not wrong. Amazon had to abandon an AI-based hiring tool because it favored male over female candidates, perpetuating biases in the historical data it was fed. 

AI will continue to transform the way we hire. Here’s how to incorporate it into your recruitment processes ethically and transparently. 

Use AI for some processes but not all

At TestGorilla, we think AI can simplify many hiring processes, but it’s not suitable for all aspects of recruitment just yet. For instance, refrain from using AI to screen candidates or make any decisions in the hiring process until it’s stronger at eradicating biases. 

However, you can use AI chatbots or emails to communicate with candidates during the application process. You can also use AI tools to create effective skills-based job descriptions or take notes during video interviews. 

Don’t forget the role of human touch

While AI can help you streamline several hiring processes, we don’t recommend relying solely on it for any one practice. Combine human judgment and AI power for the best outcomes. 

In our conversation with Yashna Wahal, she said, “We don’t live in a world entirely run by bots – not yet, at least. Candidates still crave human touch and contact in the application process.” 

Conduct regular AI bias audits

Finally, consider running regular AI bias audits to make sure your AI systems aren’t discriminating against candidates. Also, keep recruiters current with audit results and best practices, helping them trust the process. 

Refer to the latest guidelines by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for more information. 

Be a trendsetter: Put an end to paper-thin hiring in 2024 with TestGorilla

Hiring is undergoing a massive transformation. With labor markets cooling, wages stabilizing, and the rise of AI in hiring, you’re in a better position than ever to land top talent. 

The best way to do this is to use a skills-based hiring approach – the most powerful trend in hiring today. TestGorilla can help you do this.

With our platform, you can roll out talent assessments to vet applicants’ hard and soft skills, cognitive abilities, personality, and cultural contributions. This way, you can make data-driven hiring decisions, leave resumes in the past, and put an end to paper-thin hiring in 2024. Try it for free today.