The recruitment landscape is constantly evolving, often driven by technological advancements, changes to the way we work and an increased focus on employee wellbeing. 97.3% of all businesses in Australia are Small businesses. In order to remain competitive in the market and to hire top talent, it’s important to understand the hiring strategies that can move your business forward. Here’s some of the hiring trends to watch out for this year:

Remote work

Remote work is no longer considered a perk – many employees are looking for a hybrid work environment at a minimum. A study by the Australian Bureau of Statistics found that remote work has become a preferred choice for many employees.37% of employed people regularly worked from home in 2023.  Small businesses are adapting to this trend, offering flexible work arrangements to attract a broader talent pool. 

Diversity & Inclusion

There are huge benefits to building a diverse and inclusive workforce. D&I is incredibly important from a social justice perspective. It also has quantitative benefits to workplaces. Diverse workplaces boost creativity due to employing candidates from a wide range of backgrounds. Diversity encompasses a range of areas including: 

• Racial and ethnic
• Gender
• Disability
• LGBTQ+

Diverse businesses are 1.7 times more likely to be innovative, according to Josh Bersin. They are also more profitable, productive and have greater rates of retention.  McKinsey reports that companies in the top 25% for ethnic and cultural diversity in the US were 36% more profitable than those in the bottom quarter. 

By viewing potential employees as a ‘culture add’ rather than a ‘culture fit’, workplaces will benefit from increased knowledge, skills and overall creativity.  Employees are more productive and there are ongoing benefits to the employee value proposition to attract candidates to the business.

Skills-Based Hiring

Skills-based hiring is a recruitment process based on hiring candidates based on their skills, rather than credentials or experience. There are enormous benefits to hiring for skill as it increases the size of the talent pool, decreases discrimination and bias from evaluating a candidate’s education and experience and essentially puts candidates on a level playing field. 

According to McKinsey, “hiring for skills is five times more predictive of job performance than hiring for education and more than two times more predictive than hiring for work experience.”

AI in Recruitment

AI is being used in a number of different ways to innovate the recruitment process, including resume screening, candidate matching and video interviewing. Predictive Hire cites that approximately 55% of companies invest in automation for its recruitment process and decision making, improving efficiency and reducing time to hire. Joanne Meister, Co-Author of ‘The Future Workplace Experience’ says: ‘AI will augment HR and give HR time to work on more strategic business issues. The opportunity is to use AI to streamline HR manual processes and provide a more consumer grade service to employees.’

Adapting to recruitment trends proactively can help small businesses build teams that are more resilient, more successful and more likely to thrive in the evolving landscape of 2024.