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Top hiring trends to watch in 2025
10 min read | Elisabetta Bayliss | Article | | Market trends
It’s probably no surprise to hear that the hiring landscape is set to undergo yet another overhaul in 2025 – but knowing and dissecting these key movements is crucial when planning your talent strategies and acting with confidence.
Drawing on our latest market insights and experts’ views, we’ve set out six of the top hiring trends shaping the future of recruitment – and revisiting some of last year’s previous trends in the process – helping you stay ahead of the talent acquisition curve.
The advent of disruptive technologies, and the need for employees who can quickly adapt to new tools and methodologies, have caused the traditional emphasis on formal education to shift towards a more skills-based approach. Hiring for potential was one of the key trends we identified last year, and this theme is expected to continue in 2025.
According to our Salary & Recruting Trends 2025 guide, over three-quarters (77%) of employers would be likely to hire an individual who does not possess all the required skills, with the intention of upskilling them. And nearly half (44%) don’t believe a degree to be important. But despite the ongoing discourse around skills-based hiring, many organisations have been slow to make meaningful change.
"Skills-based recruitment has shot up the business agenda, but when push comes to shove, many organisations are still too conservative,” says Harry Gooding, Director at Hays Skills. “Removing technical experience and degree requirements is a good starting point, but skills need to be considered across all stages of the hiring process. To begin with, creating a skills taxonomy that identifies essential attributes will allow for more meaningful skills-first strategies.”
To turn words into action, consider partnering with a skills specialist to identify, attract, and nurture the exact talent your organisation requires from the ground up.
Key takeaway: Create a skills taxonomy to identify mission-critical skills, implementing assessments, practical tests, and real-world problem-solving abilities across the hiring process to identify the best candidates.
Another recurring trend from last year, remote and hybrid work models are here to stay; our salary guide revealed that 43% of professionals are working in a hybrid way, and almost half (46%) said they wouldn’t accept a job that didn’t offer hybrid working. And while last year saw some large organisations make headlines for gambling with RTO tactics, they risk alienating their workforce and undermining their hiring efforts.
However, the hybrid conversation extends beyond where work gets done, but how, when and to what extent. From flexi-time to compressed hours, empowering your people to work the way they feel most productive – and where possible, accommodating their personal routines and commitments – will lead to a more engaged and motivated workforce.
Moreover, the government’s plans to ‘Make Work Pay’, enshrined by the new Employees Rights Bill, may make flexible working the norm, while the related ‘right to switch off’ measures will require organisations to show greater awareness of individual working arrangements. In this new government-endorsed era of flexible working, making sure managers have the tools and training to lead hybrid teams effectively will be a must.
Key takeaway: Embrace personalised and flexible ways of working, investing in technology and manager training to support virtual collaboration and remote team management.
There’s more to know and more to learn in today’s world of work – something that forward-thinking candidates are acutely aware of. Our salary guide revealed that almost three-quarters (74%) of professionals would be willing to participate in AI upskilling or reskilling programmes.
However, professional development is still a work-in-progress for many organisations, with almost half (48%) of employees citing a lack of career progression as the main reason for job dissatisfaction. Moreover, a third (33%) point to a lack of upskilling opportunities.
Organisations that can support candidates’ desire for knowledge, and provide ample opportunities for professional development, will increase their prospects of attracting and retaining ambitious professionals.
Key takeaway: Embed meaningful L&D programmes that empower professionals to keep their skills relevant and careers moving, communicating these initiatives across your talent acquisition campaigns.
From augmented applicant tracking systems to smart chatbots that engage with candidates, AI is streamlining hiring and improving efficiency. According to our What Workers Want 2024 report, nearly half of the employers we surveyed (49%) observed better-quality candidates making it through to first-stage interview. And in 2025, AI could play an even more significant role in identifying and attracting top talent, reducing bias, and providing data-driven insights that improve hiring decisions.
However, a lack of openness regarding AI in recruitment could damage the candidate experience, with over three-quarters (78%) wanting to know if the technology is being used to evaluate their CVs. Despite this, a third of employers don’t inform applicants that their organisation uses AI tools to evaluate job descriptions.
Along with communicating how AI tools might influence hiring decisions, organisations should always look to maintain a human level of intervention, empowering their people with the proper tools and training to truly understand AI’s opportunities and limitations when augmenting recruitment processes.
Key takeaway: Make it clear to candidates when AI tools will be used during the screening process, and outline any steps taken to mitigate bias from creeping into this evaluation stage, backing any automated processes with a human layer of review and the necessary training.
It’s clear that candidates are looking for an inclusive work environment. Almost four-in-five (79%) employees say a diverse and inclusive organisational culture is important to them when considering a new role, according to our salary guide. However, the politicisation of DE&I is placing leaders in a tough position when endorsing inclusive strategies, underscored by reports of DE&I budgets and headcount being scaled back. Moreover, there’s a clear need to solve the puzzle of perceived DE&I effectiveness and lived experiences, which too often don’t match up.
Our C-suite research suggests executives are confident in their DE&I offering, with the vast majority (92%) believing that DE&I initiatives are being successfully implemented within their organisation. But this positive outlook may not be shared across the wider workforce; looking at our latest DE&I report, well over half (56%) of employees believe that their career progression has been limited due to a protected characteristic at least once.
With their unique influence across the business, C-suite professionals will play a leading role in driving DE&I initiatives in an increasingly polarised environment. Doing so will require leaders to clearly communicate the human and business value of inclusive cultures, overcoming blockers such as budget restrictions and competing board interests.
Key takeaway: Leaders must leverage their influence to keep DE&I initiatives progressing, facilitating open conversations around DE&I and voicing employee feedback.
Last year, we identified how the convergence of different workers – from permanent to contingent – promised agile talent solutions in the face of global and economic uncertainty. However, an increasingly intricate composition of professionals is demanding greater accountability and workforce oversight.
Outsourcing remains a secure and scalable way of managing complex staffing needs, and executives have relied on trusted providers when fulfilling their talent strategies. From our research of 500 C-suite professionals, nearly three-quarters (72%) said their organisation had implemented an RPO (recruitment process outsourcing), while 64% had implemented an MSP (managed service programme).
Key takeaway: Consider partnering with a total workforce expert who can provide you with improved oversight and management of your permanent, temporary and contingent workforce.
Navigating tomorrow’s talent landscape is a balancing act, with the diversity of these trends underscoring the complex decisions leaders face when firming-up their talent strategies. While the ability to embrace new technology and innovate hiring practices can’t be ignored, the organisations that succeed in the months ahead will be those that keep people’s best interests firmly in their sights.
Want to make 2025 your year of progress? Get in contact today and discover how our market intelligence, powerful technology, and expert consultation can realise your ambitions.
Elisabetta Bayliss, Chief Operating Officer, Enterprise Solutions at Hays UK&I
With 35 years’ experience, Elisabetta’s recruitment expertise spans the UK and overseas, private and public sectors, contingency, and contracted business. As the Chief Operating Officer for Enterprise Solutions at Hays UK&I, she is responsible for ensuring clients retain a competitive advantage in talent management through our technology-enabled MSP, RPO, CMO, SOW and Direct Sourcing solutions.
