Solution: Total Workforce Solutions

7 direct sourcing best practices in talent acquisition

Posted on by akessler

Direct sourcing has emerged as a pivotal talent acquisition strategy, empowering organizations to proactively identify, attract, and engage candidates. As the growth of the gig economy blurs the line between full-time and temporary employment, workers are increasingly open to both permanent roles and contingent placements.

By using your own talent database rather than third-party agencies, direct sourcing allows you to build pools of qualified candidates. Instead of starting fresh with every opening, you cultivate ongoing relationships with people who already know your organization, such as former employees, past applicants, and referrals. Ultimately, nurturing a blended talent pool enables organizations to eliminate friction and connect with top talent more efficiently.

Below are seven best practices for implementing direct sourcing within your organization.

1. Start with the talent you already have

The quickest way to build a direct sourcing program is often to look at who’s already in your ATS. Many organizations hold years of candidate data, including past applicants, expression-of-interest submissions, and candidates who reached the final stages of an earlier search but didn’t receive an offer. Former employees and contractors who left on good terms are another valuable source, because they know your culture and ways of working.

Rediscovering this talent gives you a head start. These candidates have some familiarity with your brand, and you’ve already invested in attracting them once. Before you reach out, check that your candidate data is current and that you have permission to contact them, in line with local privacy rules. Starting here can help you show results early, which makes it easier to build support for the wider program.

2. Focus on your employer brand 

A strong employer brand showcases what makes your company unique and appealing, serving as a powerful magnet for skilled professionals seeking temporary, project-based, and full-time work. To build an effective employer brand, start by developing a compelling employer value proposition (EVP) that highlights the distinct advantages of working with your organization. This should encompass your company’s values, culture, and the opportunities you offer. Consider factors such as flexible work arrangements, challenging projects, and professional development opportunities. Communicate these elements clearly and consistently across your website, social media platforms, email nurture campaigns, and other channels to create a cohesive brand image.

Because direct sourcing talent pools often include both permanent and contingent workers, it’s important to ensure that your EVP applies to both. Have you formally defined the value proposition for contractors? Contingent workers are a part of your culture, too, and deserve the same experience as full-time workers. It may help to shift from using the term EVP, which implies the value is only experienced by those you employ directly, to using talent value proposition (TVP) to make it more inclusive. Direct sourcing gives you a way to share that value proposition with every worker in your talent pools, regardless of classification.

3. Segment your talent pools 

Segmenting your talent pools by skills, experience level, and job type helps you target your efforts. When a permanent role or contract assignment opens, you can go straight to the right group of candidates.

It also helps you coordinate outreach, so the same candidate isn’t approached separately for a permanent role and a contract assignment. Over time, analytics can show you what each segment values, which helps you tailor your talent value proposition for different groups.

4. Keep your talent pools engaged 

Once your talent pools are in place, the goal is to keep them engaged until the right opportunity comes along. Tailor your outreach to each segment, sharing relevant updates, feedback, and opportunities so candidates stay connected to your organization. Use the channels each group is most likely to respond to, whether that’s email, text, social media, or industry events.

By staying in touch with passive talent, you build a ready pipeline of qualified candidates you can call on as your hiring needs change.

When someone from your talent pool does apply, the hiring process should reflect the relationship you’ve built. In PeopleScout’s Inside the Candidate Experience 2026 report, 64% of candidates heard nothing back from more than half of the employers they applied to. Silence at that stage can quickly undo months of nurturing. Whether a candidate is being considered for a permanent or contingent role, keep the process transparent, set realistic expectations about timelines, and close the loop with everyone.

5. Use technology to scale 

Most of the practices in this article depend on having the right tools in place. Technology provides the infrastructure that makes direct sourcing work at scale.

Look for solutions with AI-powered matching that can surface a pool of strong-fit candidates from your existing database and rank them against a role’s requirements. Recruiters and hiring managers can then start with the strongest matches rather than a blank search, while people continue to make every hiring decision. External sourcing tools can extend your reach further, and inbound channels like custom career sites, internal job portals, expression-of-interest forms, and programmatic advertising can all feed your talent pools.

To keep those pools engaged at scale, you’ll also need a CRM and recruitment marketing tools that automate personalized outreach, freeing your team to focus on building relationships.

6. Measure what matters

Track key metrics such as time-to-fill, quality of hires, cost-per-hire, candidate engagement rates, and source of hire. Additionally, monitor the size and quality of your talent pools, the effectiveness of your engagement strategies, and the overall satisfaction of both candidates and hiring managers.

A few measures are specific to direct sourcing and show whether the program is paying off.

  • The share of hires and placements that come from your talent pools
  • Changes in your staffing agency spend
  • How often contractors move into permanent roles and vice versa

Regularly analyzing these metrics will give a clear view of your direct sourcing program’s performance and highlight areas for improvement. For instance, if you notice a particular talent pool consistently yields high-quality candidates with shorter time-to-fill rates, you might allocate more resources to cultivating that segment. Similarly, if certain engagement tactics result in higher response rates, you can refine your communication strategies accordingly. The goal is not just to collect data but to turn it into program improvements.

7. Consider a talent partner 

Implementing direct sourcing well requires substantial resources, expertise, and ongoing management. This is where a total talent partner can help.

Providers that offer both recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and managed service provider (MSP) programs bring scale and specialization. They invest in sourcing technology, follow market trends, and refine their strategies using data from clients across industries. A partner can also bring a consultative view, assessing your skills gaps against anticipated demand to support more formal workforce planning, so your talent pools are ready when you need them.

With the right partner, direct sourcing can become a foundation for bringing your permanent and contingent hiring together, and a step toward total workforce management.

PeopleScout Direct Sourcing is powered by Affinix®, our AI-powered total talent technology suite. It helps you rediscover strong-fit candidates already in your database, search more than 1.3 billion external candidate profiles, and nurture talent pools through personalized email and text campaigns. ScoutAI, a built-in AI assistant, shows candidate match scores and insight summaries to recruiters, so they can focus on the strongest matches first.

How to improve candidate engagement for total talent acquisition

Posted on by akessler

Employers put a great deal of time and energy into candidate engagement. Even in a slower hiring market, where many roles attract more applicants than recruiters can review, candidate expectations remain high.

Yet our latest research shows that effort isn’t translating into a better candidate experience. In PeopleScout’s Inside the Candidate Experience 2026 report, featuring data from a global survey of more than 1,000 job seekers across 10 markets, just 11% of candidates rated their experience as very positive, down from 18% in 2023. Ghosting was a big part of the problem, with 64% of candidates hearing nothing back from more than half of the employers they applied to. Employers that want better outcomes across their hiring programs need to rethink how they engage candidates.

That challenge grows when permanent and contingent hiring run as separate processes, because candidates can have very different experiences depending on the type of role they apply for. Organizations are starting to close the gap. Everest Group research shows nearly half of enterprises are now actively working to unify their permanent and contingent hiring strategies. With economic uncertainty continuing and many employers relying on contingent talent to respond to shifting demand, that work is becoming more pressing. A total talent acquisition strategy, encompassing both full-time and contingent  hiring, can help organizations reduce agency costs and fill the roles the business needs most.

In this article, we’ll look at how siloed permanent and contingent hiring affects the candidate experience, share best practices that work across both worker types, and explain what to look for in a total talent partner.

A tale of two candidate journeys: permanent and contingent workers

Permanent hiring typically involves thorough vetting, with recruiters responsible for moving candidates through the process. Contingent hiring often includes more stages and handoffs as suppliers pass candidates to hiring managers, and it’s sometimes decentralized, with each department managing their own hiring.

Recruitment process workflows for both permanent employees and contingent workers

Ownership is split, too. Typically, procurement leaders oversee contingent labor spend, while talent acquisition leaders look after full-time hiring. As a result, a candidate applying for a permanent role and a contractor applying for a temporary assignment at the same organization may go through entirely different processes, with different contacts, timelines, and levels of communication.

The importance of a total talent acquisition strategy

To the business, the need is usually simple: hire the right talent to get the work done. Recruitment, however, usually isn’t organized that way. As the two journeys above show, permanent and contingent hiring often run as separate processes. When both sides compete for the same talent pool, the costs can add up.

  • Both sides may pay a premium to reach the same candidates.
  • Each side may advertise, source, and screen for similar roles separately.
  • A strong candidate turned down for a permanent role often isn’t considered for a contract assignment—the same is true in reverse. In both cases, talent you’ve already paid to attract is lost.

The cost can also extend well beyond the hiring program. In our 2026 research, 37% of candidates who had a negative experience said they would tell others not to apply, and 36% said they would stop buying from the company. For consumer-facing businesses with large contingent workforces, a poor experience for one group of workers can quickly become a brand reputation problem.

A total talent acquisition strategy brings permanent and contingent hiring together under one view of demand. Organizations can start with the work that needs doing and then find the best route to the right talent, rather than deciding first whether a role should go to an employee or a contractor. Just as important, every candidate gets a consistent experience of your brand, however they come to you. That consistency is the foundation for better candidate engagement.

How to improve engagement for every candidate

So, how do you create an engaging candidate experience that gives both full-time and contingent candidates what they want? The fundamentals are largely the same, whatever the worker classification. In our 2026 research, candidates ranked respect for their time (4.36 out of 5), a transparent process (4.28), and fair assessment (4.27) as the most important parts of the hiring journey. In practice, that means holding contingent hiring to the same standard as full-time recruitment.

Let candidates drive the process

Wherever possible, candidates should be able to move themselves through the hiring process, whether they’re applying for a permanent position or a three-month contract. Self-service steps like mobile applications, text-based screening, and automated interview scheduling can reduce the friction that leads to drop-off. For contingent workers—who are often on tighter timelines and evaluating multiple immediate opportunities—speed and self-service are crucial to securing top talent before a competitor does.

Focus on your candidates, not your company

Start by thinking about the specific talent personas you’re targeting. Your recruitment marketing campaigns and job postings should feature thoughtful messaging that highlights what’s in it for them. A contractor may care most about pay transparency, speed to placement, project scope, and flexibility, while a permanent candidate may focus more on career growth, culture, and benefits. Tailoring your messaging helps both groups feel understood.

Make your career site work harder for you

Your career site is often where candidates decide whether to apply at all, yet contract roles may only be advertised through staffing suppliers. Unifying your career site to showcase both permanent and contingent opportunities helps reduce confusion.

Ensure the site is easy to navigate and eliminates duplicate postings. For example, a retailer hiring full-time and part-time seasonal staff across multiple locations should make it clear whether applying to one role opens consideration for others. Adding FAQ content that outlines the application process for both permanent roles and contingent assignments gives every applicant confidence upfront.

Streamline interviews

The shelf life of an engaged candidate is short. While permanent roles typically involve thorough, multi-stage vetting, contingent hiring often gets bogged down by multiple handoffs between staffing suppliers and internal department managers. Match your interview stages to the role type. Using pre-recorded video interviews or automated scheduling tools helps you connect with candidates quickly, preventing contractors and full-time applicants alike from getting lost in scheduling delays.

Keep candidates informed at every stage

Our research found communication was one of the weakest-performing parts of the candidate experience. While TA teams often have automated communication set up for permanent hires, contingent candidates rely on staffing suppliers to keep them updated, and standards can vary widely from one supplier to the next. A few best practices can help:

  • Set clear expectations about timelines and next steps at the point of application.
  • Deploy automated status updates by text and email, and set the same communication standards for your staffing suppliers.
  • Close the loop with every candidate, including contract workers who weren’t selected. A contractor who isn’t the right fit for one assignment could be exactly the talent you need for the next.
candidate engagement for contingent workers

Build pathways between contingent and permanent roles

A total talent approach works best when talent can move between worker types. A contractor who performs well on assignment already knows your organization, your teams, and the work, which can make them a strong candidate for a permanent role.

Direct sourcing can make those moves easier. Rather than relying on staffing suppliers to find talent for each role, you use your existing talent database to build and engage talent pools for both permanent and contingent roles. Those pools can include former employees and contractors, referrals, and strong runners-up from past searches. Because these candidates are already familiar with your organization, you can often fill roles faster.

Three steps can help you get started:

  • Keep talent pools engaged between roles with regular, relevant communication, so candidates stay connected to your brand until the next opportunity opens.
  • Give contractors visibility of permanent openings and a clear route to apply.
  • Track contractor performance so hiring managers can identify strong candidates for permanent roles.

Choosing a total talent partner for better candidate engagement

Executing a unified recruitment strategy across talent acquisition and procurement, two functions that have historically worked separately, isn’t easy. Coordinating technology, aligning processes, and shifting organizational mindsets often require specialized expertise. That’s why many organizations choose to work with a total talent partner.

When evaluating a partner to help achieve your total talent goals, three things matter most.

  • Dual-market expertise: Look for a partner with a clear view of both permanent and contingent hiring along with demonstrated success in your specific labor categories. They should have the market intelligence required to map candidate personas across both talent pools to effectively identify, engage, attract, and retain talent.
  • A unified tech stack: Your partner should offer talent technology that balances sourcing, AI, and automation to move candidates smoothly through the funnel—regardless of worker classification—while keeping candidates informed and ensuring humans remain in control of every hiring decision.
  • Customized total workforce solutions: A partner should create a solution unique to your business, combining approaches like direct sourcing, internal mobility, and employer branding to bring your permanent and contingent talent strategies together.
total talent acquisition solution

See how this works in practice

When a global food manufacturer brought permanent and contingent hiring under one total workforce strategy with PeopleScout, it filled about 40% of staffing requests the same day and cut compliance deficiencies by 91%. Read the case study.

Total workforce strategy boosts compliance by 91%

Posted on by akessler
Total workforce strategy boosts compliance by 91%

Total workforce strategy boosts compliance by 91%

PeopleScout helped this global food manufacturer bring permanent and contingent hiring under a single total workforce strategy to fill critical production and maintenance roles in a tight labor market.

40 % of staffing requests filled the same day
98 % onboarding compliance
91 % reduction in overall compliance deficiencies

Situation

A global food manufacturing organization needed to fill a high volume of roles across 25 locations that called for specialized, in-demand skills, and it needed to happen fast. Production lines depended on it as any delay in hiring meant a real risk of downtime which would result in loss of revenue.

The hardest roles to fill were maintenance technicians in a location with a limited talent pool and strong competition for skilled workers. The client’s internal recruiting team was making progress, but the urgency of the demand called for more capacity.

The organization ran permanent and contingent hiring programs as separate efforts. Without a shared view across both, sourcing work was sometimes duplicated. The same candidates risked being approached twice, and no one had a complete picture of hiring.

Solution

The company first engaged PeopleScout as its RPO partner for permanent hiring. On the strength of that program’s results, it expanded the scope to include contingent hiring, bringing both workforces under one total workforce strategy with MSP and RPO teams working from a single plan and shared accountability.

The two teams started by identifying the most critical contingent hiring gaps and workforce constraints, then engaged suppliers with a strong local presence and access to the talent pools the client needed. Supplier staffing calls were conducted to align hiring requirements, market conditions, and sourcing strategy before the work began.

To find maintenance technician talent, the MSP team negotiated a targeted sourcing strategy that allowed select suppliers to support direct sourcing alongside the RPO team. Participation was deliberately limited to suppliers with a proven track record on performance and candidate quality, so the client’s openings reached the right candidates without oversaturating a small local market.

Throughout, PeopleScout’s dedicated program management office (PMO) kept the manufacturer’s internal team and the PeopleScout RPO team informed with daily updates on candidate activity, actions taken, hiring progress, and upcoming start dates. On the MSP side, the PMO held frequent status reviews to help set clear supplier expectations, drive accountability, surface issues early, and keep decisions moving at the pace the deadline demanded.

The program also strengthened the client’s recruitment foundations. At launch, PeopleScout ran a full new hire onboarding audit to establish a compliance baseline and pinpoint process and documentation gaps. Corrective actions, tighter onboarding controls, standardized processes, and ongoing program governance have improved performance every year since.

Results

  • All hiring demand was fulfilled ahead of the required deadline, with no disruption to production lines.
  • Approximately 40% of staffing requests were filled the same day they were received.
  • 35% of maintenance technician placements were filled through direct hire, expanding access to a scarce skill set.
  • Onboarding compliance improved from 77% to 98%.
  • 91% reduction in identified compliance deficiencies overall, strengthening audit readiness and lowering risk.

Our Total Talent approach helped the client successfully address ongoing workforce demands in a highly competitive labor market. The manufacturer gained broader access to talent, more agility on hard-to-fill roles, and a more reliable onboarding experience. Most importantly, it kept production running through a period of high-demand hiring.

At a glance

  • COMPANY
    Global food manufacturing company
  • INDUSTRY
    Consumer goods
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Recruitment Process Outsourcing, Managed Service Program, Total Talent
Contact Sales

Green jobs, green skills: Hiring for a renewable future

Posted on by nfuqua

The future of work is green. According to the World Economic Forum, the “green transition” will create a net gain of 9.6 million jobs globally by 2030. As industries like energy, transportation, and construction adopt more sustainable practices, workers with green skills are in growing demand. Additionally, the need for these skills continues to spill into non-traditional green industries including finance, logistics, manufacturing, and technology.

However, the supply hasn’t kept up. According to LinkedIn’s Green Skills Report 2025 (released November 2025), green hiring grew 7.7% between July 2024 and July 2025, while the share of workers holding at least one green skill grew 4.3%. Demand is expanding at almost twice the pace of the talent pool.

In this article, we’ll explore the drivers for green jobs and the need for green skills, which green skills are in the highest demand, and how employers can find and hire top green talent.

What are green jobs? 

So, what qualifies as a green job? The International Labour Organization defines green jobs as roles that help improve “energy and raw materials efficiency, limit greenhouse gas emissions, minimize waste and pollution, protect and restore ecosystems, and support adaptation to the effects of climate change.”

Those roles are growing quickly. The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 places renewable energy engineers and environmental engineers among the 15 fastest-growing jobs globally through 2030, drawing on a survey of more than 1,000 employers representing 14 million workers across 22 industries.

What’s causing the shift? According to WEF, employers say climate-change mitigation is the third-most transformative trend facing their business over the next five years, and the biggest driver of their green transition. In addition, the rise of AI and the broader shift toward electrification are accelerating changes in how energy is produced and used, increasing demand for green skills across industries.

The demand shows up almost everywhere. LinkedIn found that the share of green hires increased between 2021 and 2025 in all 47 countries for which it has data. Switzerland now has a green talent concentration of 22.6%, with Germany (21.1%), Saudi Arabia (20.8%), Ghana (20.1%), and Nigeria (20.1%) also above the one-in-five mark. India sits lower at 14.4% but recorded one of the highest year-over-year growth rates at 6.2%.

But the need for green jobs goes beyond installing solar panels and building electric vehicles. According to LinkedIn, one of the most important sectors in sustainability is finance, and it is lagging. Only 10.7% of financial services workers hold at least one green skill, the second-lowest concentration of any major industry, despite the sector’s role in pricing climate risk, structuring the capital behind wind farms and charging networks, and navigating a growing body of disclosure regulation. There are signs of movement, however, with financial services recording the fastest year-over-year growth in green hiring share of any industry at 16.3%.

With increasing competition for green talent, employers need an in-depth understanding of the most in-demand green skills and how to attract, hire, and train top talent.

What are green skills?  

It is easy to mistakenly associate certain green skills with specific industries. Unlike the ability to set a broken bone, which will qualify a worker for a job in healthcare but isn’t relevant if they’re applying for a role with a law firm, green skills are more versatile. Like tech and digital skills, green skills can be applied across a wide range of industries. For example, carbon accounting—estimating the carbon footprint of different organizations—can play an important role in a variety of industries, from consulting to waste management. While there might be a concentration of workers with green skills in green industries, those skills are in demand across the global economy.

According to LinkedIn, the fastest-growing green skill category in the world is now energy management, which focuses on reducing power consumption, optimizing efficiency, and integrating low-carbon power sources. The proportion of members adding this skill grew 17.4% in 2025. It’s growing particularly quickly in the technology, information, and media sector as well as in utilities. AI has created significant new demand for energy, and renewable and nuclear energy supply continues to expand.

Energy management is another example of how portable green skills have become, with applications in roles such as plumbing engineer, utilities manager, facilities manager, or HVAC specialist, none of which would typically be classified as a green job.

That portability is now the dominant story in green hiring. For the first time, LinkedIn’s data shows that workers with green skills in non-green job titles make up 53% of all green hires. The practical implication for TA leaders is that green skills may be hiding in atypical roles. So, if you’re hiring for green skills based only on job titles, you may be missing out on a huge portion of the talent pool. And competition for those workers is real. Green talent is hired at a rate 46.6% above the workforce average.

How to hire for green skills  

To meet their own hiring and sustainability goals, employers need to understand where to find candidates with in-demand green skills, how to attract them, and how to train green-adjacent workers to help fill skills gaps. Here, we cover three options for talent leaders struggling to fill green roles.

1. Hire for skills, not job titles

The case for skills-based hiring for green jobs is strong. When more than half of green hires are landing in roles that aren’t labeled as such, screening on job title history and formal credentials alone filters out a large share of the people who could do the work. Candidates who built green capability on the job rather than in a classroom are the ones most likely to be missed.

One solution is to update the screening or assessment process. Rather than eliminating candidates who lack certain degrees or years of experience, develop criteria and assessments that objectively measure the skills necessary for the job. An RPO provider with talent advisory capabilities can help organizations move to a skills-based screening and assessment strategy.

2. Build pathways from adjacent work

Additionally, employers can build gateway roles—positions that let workers develop green capability while doing useful work—and look for candidates with green-adjacent skills.

Supply chain management is a good example of a gateway job. As organizations work to cut emissions across their supply base, people in those roles acquire green skills they didn’t arrive with.

An effective strategy for hiring candidates for these roles is looking for green-adjacent skills. These are skills that don’t necessarily fall under the green umbrella but would give the candidate the ability to do many functions related to the role. For example, STEM and digital skills would be applicable in helping an organization reach its sustainability goals. Experience in industries currently undergoing a green transformation, like utilities, energy, mining, transportation, and agriculture, can also be applied to green jobs.

To find these candidates, employers need a robust sourcing strategy to identify those with adjacent skills. The right technology solution, with AI sourcing, can identify both active and passive candidates with specific skills, expanding the talent pipeline. For employers who want to test a specific capability before committing to a full program, PeopleScout Amplifiers™ includes talent mapping and talent sourcing modules that can be pointed at a single hard-to-fill role family.

3. Focus on reskilling and upskilling

The World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025 found that employers expect 39% of existing skill sets to be transformed or become outdated between 2025 and 2030. In response, 85% say they plan to prioritize upskilling their workforce.

Green skills training specifically is becoming more available, but employers aren’t always getting credit for it. According to LinkedIn, while 49% of workers in green jobs said they had access to formal green skills training, most did not attribute that training to their employer. This points to a disconnect between what leadership is investing in and what workers experience.

Reskilling and upskilling can happen at different levels, from government programs to higher education and private employers. However, organizations shouldn’t rely solely on external programs. By building effective reskilling programs, businesses invest in services tailored to developing their own workforce while also assisting the global need for more sustainable work.

A renewable future 

As the demand for green skills increases, so does the need for effective solutions for finding, hiring, and training top green talent. RPO providers, especially those with talent advisory services, can be a valuable resource for talent leaders looking to revamp their recruiting programs for a renewable future.

The Shadow Pipeline: Why Internal Mobility is Your Best Sourcing Strategy 

Posted on by akessler

Here’s a scenario that plays out in talent teams every week: a critical role opens up, the team kicks into external sourcing mode, spends weeks (and significant budget) finding and vetting candidates and eventually makes a hire. Meanwhile, somewhere inside the organization, a tenured employee with directly transferable skills has quietly updated their LinkedIn profile and has started taking recruiter calls. 

With Baby Boomer retirement accelerating and automation reshaping the traditional leadership pipeline, the reflex to first look externally is a muscle memory from a talent market that no longer exists. 

Internal mobility isn’t a retention perk. It’s a business strategy—and for most organizations, it’s underleveraged. 

Two Workforce Shifts That Most Organizations Are Underprepared For 

Two forces are rapidly reshaping the workforce, and talent leaders need to adjust their strategies accordingly. 

The first is the retirement gap. As Baby Boomers exit the workforce en masse, they’re taking decades of institutional knowledge, leadership experience and skills with them. Filling those gaps at the senior and executive level isn’t a recruitment problem—it’s a development problem. You should already be building a pipeline within your organization of tomorrow’s leaders.  

The second force is automation. As AI and technology continue to reshape the way we work, entry-level and mid-level roles are being restructured or eliminated—and this will only accelerate. Many talent leaders haven’t fully realized the impact this will have on leadership pipelines. If the traditional stepping-stone roles that once produced your mid-level managers no longer exist, where will your next generation of leaders come from? 

The good news? They’re still already inside your organization—just in different departments, with different titles, and with potential that hasn’t been identified yet.  

The Hidden Cost of Always Looking Outward 

In the traditional talent acquisition playbook, organizations looked outward to fill skills gaps within their workforce. This model assumes that the “ideal” talent exists somewhere else. But it’s an expensive assumption. 

Research from Gallup estimates that replacing an employee can cost anywhere from 50% to 200% of their annual salary, depending on seniority and role complexity. Technical and leadership roles fall at the top of that range. And that’s before you factor in the Oxford Economics finding that new hires at large firms can take up to 28 weeks to reach full productivity. That’s nearly seven months of partial output from a single role, lost.  

What makes this particularly frustrating is that qualified talent often already exists within the organization. According to Gallup, 61% of employees believe there are roles at their current company where their skills would be better utilized. This means burnout isn’t the only driver of low employee engagement——they may be disengaged because they feel stuck. When top performers can’t find growth opportunities internally, they’ll eventually leave. The Shadow Pipeline: Talent You Already Have 

Think of your internal talent pool as a “Shadow Pipeline”—a reservoir of institutional knowledge, cultural fit and untapped potential that remains invisible to most organizations. 

Talent left in the shadows is largely an issue of limited workforce data. Most organizations view their employees through a single lens: their current job title. A Customer Success Lead is “someone who manages clients.” The fact that they came from a data analytics background, or that they’ve been quietly building dashboards for their team, or that they’ve expressed interest in product development becomes lost when you’re simply scanning an org chart. 

This is where the shift from job-based hiring to skills-based hiring comes into play. When you stop thinking of titles or experience (Project Manager) and start looking at skills (conflict resolution, resource allocation, timeline management), your internal candidate pool expands dramatically. Afterall, skills don’t fit within org chart boundaries.  

If entry-level roles are being restructured by AI, your future senior leaders aren’t advancing through the traditional pipeline anymore—they’re working in departments you might not have considered.  

Making the Invisible Visible: Where AI Changes the Game 

To effectively tap into the Shadow Pipeline, organizations are increasingly turning to AI-powered internal mobility—solutions that bridge the gap between employee aspirations and business needs. For example, PeopleScout’s Internal Mobility uses Affinix® AI technology to automatically scan internal talent pools, matching employees to roles based on a holistic view of their experience, preferences and verified skills. 

This approach solves two problems at once: 

  1. It reduces potential recruiter bias: AI doesn’t care what an employee’s current title is. It simply looks at whether their skills match the requirements of the open seat. 
  2. It empowers employees: By providing internal career portals where employees can self-manage their profiles and express interest in other parts of your organization, you capture the 70% of employees who—according to our Skills Crisis Countdown research—would prefer to explore internal opportunities before looking elsewhere. 

Is Your Internal Pipeline Visible? 

To assess your current internal mobility maturity, consider the following: 

  • Do you have a central system that lets employees create and manage their profiles to showcase their education, work history and skills? 
  • Do you have an internal career portal that lets employees express interest in future roles or receive job alerts when new opportunities matching their profile become available? 
  • Are you using AI to proactively match internal candidates to open roles before those roles ever hit the external market? 
  • Are you leveraging skills-based employee assessments to identify hidden skills and promote long-term retention and career growth? 
  • If you answered “no” or “I’m not sure” to any of these, your Shadow Pipeline is still in the dark. 

The Long-Game Case for Internal Development 

An internal hire who moves from Marketing to Product isn’t just filling a headcount gap—they’re building a career arc within your organization. They arrive on day one with institutional context, established relationships and cultural fluency that no external candidate will have. Plus, they’re far more likely to stay with the company for the long haul because they see a visible path for growth. 

This requires a shift in identity for talent acquisition leaders: from reactive seat-filler to proactive portfolio manager of human capital. When you can show—with data—that internal moves reduce time-to-productivity, lower attrition among high performers and reduce external search spend, you’ll move from transactional function to strategic asset. 

Internal Mobility for the New Talent Frontier 

Organizations that will win the talent game over the next decade won’t necessarily be the ones with the biggest budgets. They’ll be the ones that are best at developing and deploying the talent they already have. 

The retirement gap is coming. AI automation is already here. The traditional entry-level pipeline that once produced your mid-level managers is being restructured. A talent strategy that is built around reactive external hiring is built on a foundation that’s shifting beneath us. 

The good news: the solution is already inside your organization. You just need the strategy—and the tools—to find it. 

If you’re ready to unlock the potential within your existing workforce and create a sustainable pipeline for the future of your organization, explore PeopleScout’s tech-powered Internal Mobility solution. 

Skills-Based Hiring: Moving Beyond the Hype

Posted on by akessler

Skills-based hiring has become an established part of the talent acquisition conversation. But as more organizations explore what it means in practice, it’s worth looking beyond the buzzwords to understand where it can genuinely improve hiring—and where the conversation can oversimplify the reality.

Skills-based hiring is often framed it as revolutionary step forward—a clean break from “outdated” methods like focusing on academic qualifications. But as usual, we want to take a more critical look.

Let’s step away from the hype to examine the real pros and cons of skills-based hiring. More importantly, let’s figure out how skills-based hiring can work for you.

Skills-based hiring: Looking beyond the common myths

There are three common myths that continue to shape the narrative about skills-based hiring:

Myth 1: Educational qualifications have been the main barrier to good hiring decisions.

The argument goes that recruiting teams rely too heavily on degrees and don’t think enough about skills—and if they just focus on skills instead, all their hiring issues would be solved.

This misrepresents how most employers make hiring decisions. While education requirements do exist in job descriptions, they’re rarely the primary factor in final hiring choices. Most recruiters already consider multiple factors including experience, cultural fit, and demonstrated abilities. Skills-based hiring has its positives and certainly feels more inclusive than rigid degree requirements, but it’s not a revolutionary shift from degree-centered hiring.

Myth 2: Everyone talking about skills is talking about the same thing.

Interpretation of skills-based hiring varies; largely because there’s no clear, consistent definition of what constitutes a “skill.” In the context of skills-based hiring, a skill could be a competency, strength, or motivation—anything that enables a person to do the job well. The landscape is far more nuanced and complex than the term itself might suggest.

The reality is that defining skills is a lengthy process and requires careful consideration of context. But the broader conversation can sometimes gloss over this complexity, feeding the perception that skills are simple and universally understood. This creates the illusion that organizations should be able to easily incorporate skills-based approaches without doing the hard work of actually defining what they mean by “skills” in their specific context.

Myth 3: Skills-based hiring and talent management requires starting from scratch.

Skills-based hiring is sometimes positioned as a fundamental reinvention of how organizations recruit and manage talent. However, that doesn’t really reflect most hiring processes.

Even if you’re not actively thinking about skills-based hiring, it’s likely that it is embedded—at least partly—into your hiring process already. Today, recruiters rarely just think in terms of hiring somebody because their qualifications line up to the “essential” section of the job description.

So, skills-based hiring isn’t necessarily a wholesale change in practice. For many organizations, the opportunity is to make an existing focus on skills more intentional, consistent, and measurable.

The real question isn’t whether organizations should suddenly “switch” to skills-based hiring, but how they can apply it more deliberately and effectively within their existing talent strategy.

Getting started with skills-based hiring when time and budgets aren’t huge

If you do want to embrace skills-based hiring, here are some practical steps:

1. Start with an audit

If you’re keen to implement skills-based hiring, first of all, feel reassured that it’s likely already part of your approach, even if you don’t call it that. Start by establishing where you are along the skills-based continuum.

Diagnostics come into their own here. Assess your hiring processes in a structured way, identifying gaps, strengths, and opportunities for improvement. It can be beneficial to bring in an external partner like the PeopleScout Assessment Design team, to provide robust, evidence-based, unbiased feedback to maximize impact.

2. Defining your skills

Then it comes down to defining skills—for now and the future. These can’t be vague; they need to be carefully defined so that they can be accurately applied. You’ll build these from research, both internally and by looking externally. If you want to have an organization-wide approach, you’ll need to consider skills relevant for leadership and entry level roles, and across departments. Engage your department heads and hiring managers to map these.

3. Look at your non-skills criteria

You don’t have to remove academic qualifications from your hiring process entirely. However, if there are instances where you’re using an academic qualification as a stand-in for a skill—say, a humanities degree as a signifier of good written communication skills—you can probably move away from it and start focusing more explicitly on the skill itself.

Skills-based hiring can open doors for many candidates—and expand your talent pool. Perhaps your ideal candidate does not have a college degree, but their written communication skills are more than adequate for the role.

4. Kick off a pilot

Even without a big budget to fund an overhaul of your recruitment processes, it’s still possible to move toward a skills-based approach. To make it manageable, begin with a small pilot. Your audit can help you identify the best starting point—perhaps for a particular department or role type.

Once you’ve started, you’ll want to closely monitor it to ensure that the benefits are genuine. Rather than investing significant time, money, and resources all at once, make changes bit by bit, turn to evidence, and stay reflective.

The bottom line

Look beyond the buzzwords. In all likelihood, skills-based hiring has been a part of your process for a while now. If you want to concentrate more on skills-based hiring, start small, remain skeptical of the hype, get external insight, be evidence-based, and keep evolving your approach.

Powering Digital Innovation: MSP Solution Transforms Tech Recruitment in India

Posted on by akessler
Powering Digital Innovation: MSP Solution Transforms Tech Recruitment in India

MSP in India

Powering Digital Innovation: MSP Solution Transforms Tech Recruitment in India

Through strategic total workforce solutions across India’s technology centers, PeopleScout helped a global tech leader scale its talent acquisition by over 50% while maintaining quality and compliance.

Situation

PeopleScout has been a strategic talent acquisition partner to this client, a leading technology company, for over a decade, supporting the company’s continuous growth and workforce transformation initiatives. Throughout this journey, our engagement has expanded significantly, scaling by more than 50% to address their evolving hiring surges and business priorities.

As technology demands intensified, the client needed a robust recruitment partner capable of navigating IT skills shortages, managing high-volume hiring across multiple disciplines, and delivering services across diverse cultural contexts and cities. The requirement spanned a wide variety of functions, including:

  • Professional services, finance and legal roles
  • Infrastructure support and security roles
  • Customer experience and support roles
  • Global sales and marketing roles
  • IT roles (including expertise in .NET, Java, Oracle, SQL and testing)
  • Analytics and data science roles (including expertise in big data, Hadoop, SQL queries and advanced MS Excel)

The challenge was not just about scale but also about ensuring seamless operational execution across India’s major tech hubs—Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurgaon, Navi Mumbai and Chennai.

Solution

To address these complex hiring needs, PeopleScout deployed Managed Service Provider (MSP) and Total Workforce Solutions, offering end-to-end talent management across the recruitment lifecycle. This included sourcing, screening, assessment, onboarding and offboarding of contract and project-based professionals across multiple business lines.

Our approach was centered around collaborative workforce planning with the client’s HR and business teams, aligning resource allocation with project timelines and delivery milestones. A dedicated PeopleScout delivery team managed workforce compliance, optimized candidate experience and ensured that diversity and inclusion goals were embedded in every hiring initiative.

By acting as an extension of the client’s internal talent team, PeopleScout not only managed India recruitment operations but also supported broader strategic activities such as vendor audits, employee grievance resolution and workforce analytics reporting.

Results

PeopleScout’s MSP solutions have become integral to the client’s talent strategy. On an annual basis, we successfully hire over 2,500 professionals across IT, finance and accounting and customer experience. Through a tech-enabled recruitment process, our teams have delivered:

  • Scalable hiring outcomes without compromising quality or timelines
  • Seamless contract lifecycle management—from requisition creation to onboarding and exit formalities
  • Diverse and inclusive hiring practices to foster a balanced and equitable workplace
  • Proactive collaboration with the client’s project managers and vendor ecosystem to protect client interests and drive continuous improvement

The longevity and growth of this engagement underscore PeopleScout’s capability to deliver strategic, agile and future-ready workforce solutions for global technology enterprises.

At a Glance

  • COMPANY
    Leading Global Technology Company
  • INDUSTRY
    Technology
  • PEOPLESCOUT SOLUTIONS
    Managed Service Program, Total Talent
  • LOCATIONS
    Multiple locations India’s major tech hubs—Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurgaon, Navi Mumbai and Chennai
  • ABOUT THE CLIENT
    As one of the world’s most influential technology companies, this global organization plays a pivotal role in developing cutting-edge technology solutions across sectors.
Let’s Connect

Talent Trends: 2024 In Review 

Posted on by akessler

At the start of 2024, we highlighted eight key areas that would impact how companies attract, retain and develop talent. As the year comes to a close, we’re revisiting these critical topics to examine what transpired in the talent landscape and explore what may be on the horizon for 2025.  

This year brought a complex mix of challenges and opportunities for HR leaders. Economic uncertainty forced many to re-evaluate talent acquisition strategies, with approaches like modular talent solutions and direct sourcing gaining traction. The ongoing skills gap, intensified by business transformation and the rise of new technologies like AI, highlighted the need for upskilling, reskilling and proactive talent pipelining. Meanwhile, employees continued to reevaluate their relationship with work, demanding greater flexibility, wellbeing support and personalized experiences. Navigating these shifts required HR leaders to become more agile, data-driven and employee-centric, often relying on technology to streamline processes, enhance the candidate experience and gain valuable talent market intelligence. 

In the following review, we trace how our 2024 predictions played out and offer insights for the path ahead. 

1. New Models Help Organizations Ride the Economic Waves 

What We Said:

Talent acquisition teams have experienced significant fluctuations over the past few years—from pandemic-driven downsizing to rapid growth and recent cutbacks—making it critical for talent acquisition leaders to develop strategies for managing through economic uncertainty. Rather than continuing the cycle of boom and bust, organizations should adopt agile approaches to workforce planning, with flexible RPO solutions offering stability during unpredictable times. 

What We Saw:  

Market conditions shifted the recruitment landscape to favor employers in 2024. Year-over-year hiring rates are stabilizing, with a moderation in the hiring slowdown, especially in the tech industry. While hiring rates across many industries were down, healthcare and energy sectors saw continued strength despite the general economic downturn. With continued labor shortages, shifting skills requirements and changing employee expectations, immense pressure remains on employers and their talent strategies.   

Modular talent solutions are gaining traction as a strategic response to economic uncertainty, providing a flexible approach to workforce management that allows employers to adapt to fluctuating demand and optimize costs. As 91% of hiring managers say they’re experiencing hiring challenges, and 45% indicate they’re struggling to find qualified workers for open roles, Modular RPO (recruitment process outsourcing) has proven to be a cost-effective strategy for augmenting internal recruitment capabilities. 

Employers also turned to direct sourcing as a key strategy for tackling staffing shortages. According to Everest Group, 46% of enterprises are actively exploring ways to combine approaches for contingent and permanent talent acquisition management, and 74% see direct sourcing as the best strategy for doing so. By building a talent pool of qualified candidates—including independent contractors, freelancers and other contingent workers—companies can hire faster, reduce costs and fill specific skills gaps within their organization. Leveraging contingent labor helps organizations gain the flexibility and scalability necessary in today’s dynamic market. 

As you consider implementing direct sourcing in your organization, remember that technology is a crucial enabler, and the human touch remains invaluable. Partnering with an RPO provider can provide you with AI-powered, cutting-edge technology, backed by expert talent curation and engagement strategies.  

2. Focus on Internal Mobility 

What We Said: 

Employee retention will remain a top priority for HR professionals in 2024, with 36% identifying it as crucial, leading to an increased focus on internal mobility and skill development. Following the labor hoarding trend of 2023, organizations are emphasizing the transformation of existing workers’ skills to prepare for future needs. Career paths are becoming more fluid, moving away from traditional linear progression to cross-departmental moves, which requires hiring managers to evaluate candidates based on their overall organizational value rather than just role-specific fit. 

What We Saw:   

Internal mobility is on the rise as hiring rates stabilize. According to LinkedIn, internal mobility has increased 6% year-over-year as companies discover how leveraging internal hiring can accelerate organizational agility, employee engagement and retention, and career development. According to LinkedIn’s 2024 Workplace Learning Report, 41% of companies plan to fill more than 30% of their open roles with internal talent. Internal mobility does more than help employers fill critical gaps—93% of employees stay at a company longer if it invested in their career development, and internal hires reach competency 20% faster than external hires.  

Internal mobility programs are more successful when combined with upskilling and reskilling initiatives. As business needs evolve, internal mobility allows employees to move into new roles, and upskilling and reskilling provide the necessary training to close skills gaps and ensure employees are successful in their new roles. By offering these development opportunities, employers expand the pool of qualified internal candidates while boosting employee engagement. 
 
By effectively integrating upskilling and reskilling with internal mobility programs, companies can create a more engaged, agile and resilient workforce, helping them overcome current and future hiring challenges in a dynamic business environment. An RPO partner can help create a robust internal mobility program that leverages best practices to support continuous learning, career growth and workforce planning to retain top talent and swiftly adapt to changing business needs.  

3. AI Becomes a Reality…Slowly 

What We Said: 

While talent acquisition continues to evolve with the growth of new technologies like Generative AI (GenAI)—particularly in streamlining tasks from screening to interview scheduling—organizations are advised to take a measured, principled approach to AI implementation. The key is to start with small projects to identify where AI can add genuine value while maintaining human oversight—which remains central to recruitment processes. 

What We Saw:  

Following the widespread discussion tools like ChatGPT, we thought we’d see organizations move beyond ethical debates to actively integrate GenAI into their talent acquisition strategies. Indeed, eight in 10 global executives see at least one way GenAI will help their employees, yet only one in 10 organizations have “broad leadership alignment, comprehensive tools and strong processes in place for GenAI adoption.” 

While adoption rates vary, AI is transforming talent acquisition. We’ve seen increased use of AI tools for résumé screening and initial candidate assessment, driving recruiter efficiencies, reducing potential unconscious bias and improving quality of hire. Natural language processing tools can ingest thousands of résumés and CVs, and analyze the content, context and trends across the talent pool within seconds. AI tools can be trained to recognize specific skills, experiences and competencies that are required for open roles and then score and rank applicants automatically. 

Some employers have integrated AI-powered chatbots into their recruitment process to create a conversational experience for candidates using natural language processing, offering candidates support 24/7. These mobile-friendly, text interview tools automatically screen candidates using predetermined questions that gauge their interest and qualifications. Based on the responses, the chatbot can instantly determine the next step for each specific candidate. This frees up recruiters to focus on more strategic tasks. 

Adoption of AI-powered skills assessment platforms has also increased, providing an objective and accurate evaluation of candidates’ abilities through data-driven insights. New tech platforms test and measure candidates for skills mastery, personality traits and cognitive abilities. As with all AI-powered efficiencies, the tech-enabled assessments should augment, not replace human expertise.  

Partnering with an RPO provider is an excellent way to ensure careful, diligent and compliant use of AI tools throughout your recruitment process. Above all, AI should not be seen as a replacement for the talent acquisition strategy you’ve already built, but rather a set of tools to make your teams better at tasks both mundane and meaningful. 

4. Business Transformation Impacts Workforce Planning 

What We Said: 

The demand for new types of jobs, particularly in areas like data analytics, software development and green skills (which saw a 677% increase from 2019 to 2023), has grown significantly, with McKinsey noting that one-third of new U.S. jobs created in the past 25 years were previously non-existent roles. While this transformation creates exciting opportunities, organizations face a critical challenge as workforce development systems struggle to keep pace with rapidly changing skill requirements, resulting in a shortage of qualified talent. To address this gap, talent acquisition leaders must focus on proactive workforce planning and employee development.  

What We Saw:  

The demand for tech talent, particularly in areas like AI, machine learning, cybersecurity and software development continued to outpace supply in 2024. The transition to sustainable practices and renewable energy sources also fuelled growth of green jobs in areas like environmental engineering, sustainable agriculture and renewable energy technologies. Across industries, the ability to collect, analyze and interpret data became critical for decision-making, leading to higher demand for data analysts, scientists and engineers.  

The World Economic Forum predicts that 23% of global jobs will change in the next five years due to industry transformation, including AI. According to LinkedIn, employees skilled at using GAI are 5x more likely than others to develop skills like creative ideation, design thinking and emotional intelligence. So, with 79% of CEOs accelerating their post-crisis business strategy, the pressure is on HR leaders to achieve the vision of a tech savvy workforce.  

HR leaders must take an active approach in the C-Suite to achieve strategic business outcomes with an edge in human capital by assessing the current state of the workforce and developing a roadmap for optimizing employee value and identifying hidden potential to close skills gaps. Yet, according to Gartner, while 87% of HR leaders agree that shifting business needs requires continuous HR transformation, only 28% say that the HR strategic planning process is fully integrated with the business planning process. 

Collaboration between the C-Suite and HR is essential for successful talent acquisition in today’s dynamic business environment. HR must be deeply involved in business discussions to understand the organization’s goals to anticipate future needs, identify potential skills gaps and develop proactive strategies to attract and grow the right talent. 

5. Growth in Skills-Based Practices  

What We Said: 

Organizations are adopting a comprehensive approach to workforce adaptation by investing in upskilling programs and partnering with RPO providers to secure talent with future-proof skills. The trend is moving towards skills-based recruitment, with companies like Google leading the way by eliminating degree requirements, which not only expands candidate pools but also promotes workplace diversity and inclusion. Companies are shifting their assessment practices to focus on actual skills rather than traditional credentials, recognizing this as a more effective way to identify qualified candidates in today’s evolving job market. 

What We Saw:  

In adapting to the changing skills landscape, employers are rightly focusing on specific skills rather than traditional credentials and talent leaders are increasingly recognizing the value of experience and learnability over degrees. Alternative credentials like certifications, badges, micro-credentials and other qualifications earned outside of traditional degree programs are also gaining acceptance, as they often focus on specific skills or knowledge areas, a natural fit for skills-based hiring strategies. Recognizing these credentials helps employers expand their talent pools, hire faster and improve quality of hire.  

Recent estimates of the impact of large language models (LLMs) by the International Labour Organization estimate that 24% of clerical tasks should be considered highly exposed to automation effects with an additional 58% having medium-level exposure, while another report suggests that 80% of U.S. workers could see at least 10% of their tasks automated. The International Monetary Fund estimates that AI would affect 40% of jobs and worsen inequality, while Goldman Sachs predicts that up to 25% of the work currently done by humans could soon be automated by generative AI.  

As AI increasingly takes on the less complex, more repeatable tasks being done by the workforce, companies will need to hire talent with broader, uniquely human skills. Skills like problem-solving, adaptability, and collaboration—all skills that spur organizational agility—will continue to rise in demand. In fact, 69% of U.S. executives say they plan to prioritize hiring candidates with soft skills, especially transferrable skills that will allow candidates to move nimbly across roles. 

While making the shift to skills-based hiring practices takes time and effort, an RPO provider can accelerate your transition by offering strategic guidance around talent assessment design to embed skills at the core of your talent practice and build a future-fit workforce. 

6. Stalled Momentum in HR Tech Upgrades  

What We Said: 

As the HR technology market grows ever bigger, 2024 is set to be a pivotal year for recruitment technology upgrades, with organizations increasingly leveraging AI-powered features to automate routine tasks and enhance the candidate experience. Talent acquisition leaders are focusing on using technology to augment human interactions and analyze data for more agile resource management, while simultaneously proving their ability to deliver digital transformation and demonstrate clear ROI on these investments. This push towards technological advancement presents an opportunity for TA leaders to dispel past criticisms about HR’s ability to drive meaningful technological change. 

What We Saw:   

Economic uncertainty impacted our predictions for HR tech upgrades in 2024. While the drive for technological advancements in HR remained strong, budgetary constraints and cautious spending impacted the pace of adoption. According to Gartner, when asked about priorities and expected challenges in 2025, 55% of HR leaders say their current technology solutions do not cover current and future business needs. HR leaders are increasingly seeking tools to gather and analyze data to inform their talent strategies and enhance the candidate experience. Uncertainty about the economic outlook led some companies to postpone major HR tech implementation, opting for smaller-scale upgrades or maximizing the value of existing systems.  

The shift to cloud-based HR systems continued, offering scalability and flexibility despite budget constraints. Companies also focused on integrating their existing HR systems to improve data flow and drive efficiencies. Under budget scrutiny, a greater emphasis was placed on demonstrated ROI of HR tech solutions.  

A Gartner survey identified HR technology as the top priority for HR investment for three consecutive years. So, while economic challenges may persist, there’s reason to be optimistic that HR tech investments will increase in 2025 as companies recognize the long-term benefits of building the ultimate tech stack. One of the biggest value-adds an RPO partnership brings is experience with and access to the latest in talent technology. An RPO provider can help you assess your current solutions, show you how emerging technologies like AI, machine learning and predictive analytics can boost your ability to attract top talent and customize a technology ecosystem to meet your needs now and into the future.  

7. Employee Expectations of Work Have Changed 

What We Said:

Talent acquisition leaders must act as strategic market listeners, continuously adapting their employer value proposition (EVP) to align with evolving candidate expectations. As employees increasingly demand more personalized experiences, organizations need to move beyond traditional one-size-fits-all EVP approaches to embrace a human-centric strategy that acknowledges employees’ full personhood. This more holistic approach, focusing on creating exceptional life experiences and positive emotional connections, will be crucial for both attracting top talent and improving retention rates in 2024. 

What We Saw:   

2024 saw a significant shift in how employees view their work, requiring employers to adapt. While compensation remains important, employees are increasingly prioritizing work-life balance, flexibility, purpose and wellbeing, and are seeking employers with a demonstrated concern for their employees—The Executive Development Network reports that 86% of employees would leave their current job if there was no obvious support for employee wellbeing.  

While many companies expanded flexible work options, including remote work, hybrid models and flexible schedules, return-to-office mandates were still prevalent with the likes of Amazon doubling down on their in-person stance. The power play between employers and employees is expected continue into 2025, and not just regarding hybrid work. Employers will continue to face increased pressure to integrate wellbeing into the workplace, as 62% of candidates say they only apply for jobs that meet the majority of their EVP requirements according to Gartner’s Q2 2024 Voice of the Candidate Survey.  

To attract and retain top talent, employers will need to actively listen to their employees’ needs and preferences to create a human-centric workplace and prioritize authenticity and transparency in communicating their values with candidates and employees. As the relationship between employers and employees will continue to evolve, organizations can benefit from leveraging data and analytics to understand employee behavior to tailor their experiences, and utilizing technology to support flexible work, personalize benefits and offer wellbeing programs. 

8. Data Remains Key 

What We Said:

The labor market faces significant challenges due to Baby Boomers’ retirement creating a brain drain, coupled with a smaller upcoming workforce that lacks certain soft skills and the growing impact of long-term illness, including COVID-19 complications, which has sidelined over 2.5 million people in the UK alone. To combat this talent scarcity, organizations must focus on attracting and training Gen Z while leveraging data analytics as a strategic tool. Talent acquisition leaders need to elevate talent intelligence to the C-Suite level, using data-driven insights to understand talent pools and optimize recruitment and retention strategies for maximum ROI. 

What We Saw:   

Effective use of data remains crucial in navigating talent scarcity and building a future-ready workforce. Savvy talent leaders are using real-time market intelligence such as salary trends, skills demand and competitor activity to make informed decisions about their recruitment and retention strategies.  

With increased adoption of AI tools across the recruitment process, machine learning models are providing predictive and prescriptive hiring insights. AI can assess candidate interest, motivations, likelihood to accept an offer and even predicted tenure, empowering recruiters to prioritize and personalize their outreach efforts. When it comes to early careers recruitment, data revealing the preferences, values and career aspirations of Gen Z is essential in developing recruitment strategies that resonate with these jobseekers.  

A key benefit to partnering with an RPO provider is the comprehensive reporting tools and data insights they can provide. PeopleScout’s Affinix® Analytics business intelligence suite offers a holistic view into the recruiting process—from job seeker data and operational metrics to campaign analytics and market intelligence.   

These insights will remain paramount in 2025—armed with the right data, employers can proactively identify and attract top talent ahead of their competitors and drive business outcomes. 

The Future is Bright with the Right Talent Partner  

The future of work holds exciting potential, but also some uncertainty. However, while individual trends are difficult to predict, TA leaders that embrace agility, skills practices and tech innovation will find themselves in a strong position to prove their value in driving business performance. As your talent partner, PeopleScout will be ready to support, challenge and inspire you for whatever lies ahead.  

By staying on top of key shifts like these and working with an expert talent solutions provider like PeopleScout, companies can build workforces with the skills, mindsets and diversity of experiences to thrive in the next era of business.