Top 19 hiring trends in 2025

Growing businesses needed remote employment in peak pandemic times, but 2024 saw a shift toward return-to-office policies, even though remote workers continue to value the independence of work-from-home and the absence of commuting time.

Since many workers prefer remote work, returning to the office remains controversial. As it stands today, less than half of employees are happy or comfortable returning to the physical office. To address this, companies are taking steps to reduce employee resistance and foster an environment where workers can thrive and succeed.

In 2025, the traditional 9-to-5 will be nearly obsolete. People operations leaders will collaborate closely with managers over the next year to define flexible work schedules. Plus, offering a flexible schedule will help small businesses ensure they aren’t losing out on top talent.

The diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) conversation in previous years has focused on the need for inclusivity. Now, the emphasis is on sharing the return on investment (ROI) of your organization’s diversity and inclusion initiatives.

The benefits are felt far beyond people operations.

Research repeatedly shows that businesses that make diversity a priority outperform their peers.

Data-driven recruitment is a modern approach to hiring where recruiters use data and analytics from various sources to make informed, strategic decisions about who to hire.

Recruiters will continue to rely heavily on gathering data about candidates, especially using screening tools to avoid manually sifting through resumes. Smart screening helps identify top talent and assess their cultural fit, boosting your hiring success rate.

And guess what? A data-driven approach doesn’t just lure in quality candidates, it elevates your employer brand in the long run.

Modern organizations are focusing on skills over degrees.

With rapid tech advancements contributing to a growing skills gap, companies are reevaluating the need for specific degrees for certain roles. Instead, they’re putting more emphasis on the skills and competencies a candidate brings to the table.

Skills predict job performance better than education or experience. And, big companies are leading by example.

Have you ever applied to your own job post, just to see what the process feels like for candidates? Try it. Is it easy to apply or do you run into annoying roadblocks?

In the coming year, we’ll see more small businesses focus on candidate experience. By nurturing individual candidates and prioritizing engagement at every step of their hiring journey, companies can build stronger relationships with top talent, ultimately impacting the success of the business.

Upskilling is the answer to the question, “How do you address a skills gap?” With so many workers switching industries, upskilling and reskilling employees is quickly becoming a key trend.

Upskilling (a.k.a. learning and development) involves teaching employees new skills (reskilling) or facilitating and improving their existing skills (upskilling). Upskilling is a tactic managers can use to prepare current talent for the future roles your business needs. It’s the conveyor belt of internal recruiting or hiring from within.

Employers can upskill both soft skills and technical knowledge. In other words, you can choose to enhance your team’s interpersonal skills and improve collaboration in the work environment, or you could target a specific technical skill missing from your workforce. So many options.

Upskilling lets employees take charge of their own career mobility while employers retain top talent. Not to mention, it’s also attractive to potential candidates.

In 2025, authenticity and meaningful work will be at the forefront of employer branding.

People are more inclined to work for organizations that have a strong moral compass. Candidates will look at a business’s history of social responsibility, diversity, and sustainability to see how accountable the company is for its actions.

Why care about your employer brand? Positive, invested workers will go the extra mile to promote your business, and employee advocacy will be one of your most powerful branding assets.

We’re in a candidate-driven market. In 2025, over half of businesses aim to raise starting salaries in the hopes of attracting skilled employees.

Offering payroll flexibility, like more frequent pay daily or weekly, for example, can make a business stand out from its competitors.

Businesses using this strategy show they’re aware of evolving employee needs and preferences, contributing to a more motivated and engaged team. A payroll initiative like this can lead to a more satisfied, motivated, and loyal workforce.

But, as with any trend, the most important part is deciding whether it makes sense for your business. Let’s weigh the pros and cons.

To level up in the job market and grow their skill arsenal, job seekers are exploring work in new fields, chasing after superior pay, enhanced benefits, and solid job security.

This seismic shift is reshaping industries. When top talent migrates to different fields, it creates workforce deficits for those left behind.

Want to attract more candidates? Keep job posts open to applicants whose backgrounds might not match traditional qualifications. There’s a shift in hiring practices away from requiring academic credentials and toward a stronger emphasis on skills.

In 2025, we’ll see more companies use AI-powered tools to streamline job posting, candidate sourcing, resume screening, and interviewing. It’s saving small businesses valuable time—plus, helps make bias-free hiring decisions.

Virtual interviews, once considered a necessity during the COVID-19 pandemic, are now a regular, and very effective, interview technique. Most industry experts agree it’s a trend that’s here to stay. However, as with everything, there are drawbacks to virtual interviews in addition to many benefits.

Changes are bound to be felt when a new generation enters the workforce. As business owners adapt to a new generation of workers, onboarding and training become more and more important.

A great onboarding process sets people up for success. Plus, onboarding impacts the bottom line. Businesses with a structured onboarding program report lower employee turnover, more work productivity, and higher team morale.

This shift towards digital recruitment is not just a passing trend but a new norm that is here to stay. 33% of people ops teams already collaborate with their social team, and 86% of job applicants use social media to search for new jobs.

As the line between active and passive candidates becomes increasingly blurred, businesses that can effectively use social media to build long-term, meaningful relationships with potential hires will have a significant advantage.

Remember, the key to successful recruitment lies in understanding your target audience, creating compelling content, and fostering genuine connections. Each step plays a crucial role in attracting and retaining top talent, from choosing the right platforms to crafting engaging job posts, leveraging targeted ads, and building a strong employer brand. As online behavior continues to evolve, so should your recruitment strategies.

For job seekers, the hunt for their dream job is often stressful enough. But there’s another important piece to keep an eye out for: application scams.

Since 2020, more remote jobs are hitting the market than ever. Unfortunately, that also means there’s more space for fraudsters to take advantage of job seekers.

How to spot fraudulent job posts

Not every job application scammer acts the same. But there are a few common tactics they use. Here are some of the signs of deceptive job applications.

Online job scams have more than doubled in the last four years. But that doesn’t mean you have to fall victim. With a few acts of due diligence, you can avoid application schemes and get one step closer to your dream job.

From the Senate floor to social media, people are demanding more open conversations about salary as a part of an equitable workplace. It’s no surprise many employers are realizing this trend is here to stay.

Deciding what level of pay transparency is right for your business can be stressful. Pay transparency is a spectrum and you get to decide where your business falls along that spectrum.

You’ve heard it before: be proactive, not reactive. Now, we’re putting it in the context of hiring and recruitment. The trendiest way to recruit proactively is with a talent pipeline.

A talent pipeline is like having a pool of potential candidates who could be a great fit for your company in the future. It’s not just about filling immediate job openings. It’s a strategic approach to build relationships with potential hires over time.

By engaging with candidates, even before there’s a specific job available, you create a network of skilled and interested people. When the right job comes up, you’ve already got a pool of talented folks to tap into, making the hiring process that much smoother.

Before building a talent pipeline, it’s so important to get a deep understanding of your company’s current and future talent needs. Work with hiring managers and stakeholders to identify critical roles and skills needed to drive the company’s success. This info is the foundation for developing targeted recruitment strategies.

Companies have continued to cut jobs in 2024 after a wave of layoffs last year. This was led by massive head count reductions at Boeing, Meta, and Google.

Anticipate market changes. It’s not just about avoiding cuts; it’s about setting up a team that can move with the economic rhythm.

Onboarding isn’t only about filling out tax forms and signing employee handbooks. It’s the right time to set clear role expectations, train your new hire, and give a great first impression.

AI and machine learning will be the backbone of recruitment operations in 2025.

The use of machine learning algorithms is becoming more common in helping recruiters sort resumes and identify potential candidates. While computers aren’t making the final hiring decisions, their recommendations are serving as important tools for recruiters.

The silent powerhouse of machine learning can filter thousands of resumes in a matter of seconds, floating just the most qualified prospects to the top of the pool.

Virtual recruiting tools are here to speed things up, revolutionize the quality of your hires, provide candidates with an experience they’ll enjoy, and lay the groundwork for an objective, successful hiring approach in 2025.