Recruitment landscape 2025
A glimpse to the year ahead from a management perspective.
2025 is shaping up to be yet another year on what we see as a war on talent. What we mean by that is that companies will need to be very committed to their recruitment processes as many variables will be very important to closing top talent. In addition, companies should really pay attention to what they’re doing to retain their top employees. Things to be aware of:
First quarter: this is always a period of settling in and addressing key needs within your organizations. It is typically a harder time to pull over employees that have year-end bonuses from the prior year which gets paid out in January, February or March. You would want to engage in contact with these candidates but realize that most will not make a move until they have payment for 2024 bonus. On the flip side, if your company is one of these that pay out 2024 bonuses in Q1, pay close attention to employees that may be potential flight risks once they have their payout ,Typically the weeks that immediately follow payout are most likely going to be when people resign.
Another Q1 trend is people that have new budgets for the fiscal year will aggressively try to make hires in Q1, here again it is very important to have road map/career plans in place during this time frame for your high achievers so that they don’t consider being persuaded to leave.
Speaking about career road mapping, Q1 is the perfect time to set in motion road mapping career paths for your employees and direct reports. Sit with each employee and make sure you’re both on the same page as to where they want to take their career in 2025, what training they need to become more effective and just get the overall pulse of where each individual employee is within their comfort level with their job and your company
Quarter 2: As we progress into Q2, this is typically where we see an influx of new searches and new opportunities appear. Most companies are now beginning to see a positive trend in sales so those hard to fill positions that have been lingering around for many months now may become more of a priority to be filled. Typically, by the end of Q2 your team is pretty much in stride and this is the team with very few exceptions, that will make or break your year.
Quarter 3: We find in Q3 this is when companies look at their senior team and start to fill gaps in both talent and prioritized functionality. Big projects such as ecommerce and IT projects that have been in the planning process in Q1 and Q2 become a reality for hiring in Q3 for impact in Q4 and beyond. For most recruitment firms ,Q3 is their biggest quarter for inventory(jobs to fill) in hand and revenue production. That translates into the most jobs filled during this period.
Quarter 4: Q4 we typically see backfill positions, these are traditionally roles such as inside, outside sales ,branch management and sales management roles, that need to be filled and replaced immediately . Its kind of like get the role filled or potentially lose the head count in the budget cycle. These openings could be from people that have left your company in Q3, also we see new positions that are longer searches in which the company is much more selective so that they can have a new budget but have candidates in place to give offers to in January.
We project that finding top talent will be the number one priority for HR departments in 2025. How you go about sourcing these candidates and the speed you apply to searches will be very dependent on your internal interview processes. It is imperative to make sure your team is 110% committed to the search. Building your brand, creating a fabulous interview process/experience and getting to offer stage with speed will tremendously impact your opportunity to close your candidate of choice.
We see companies wanting to be in the position of being more selective in 2025 but don’t be overly selective because the purple unicorn candidate may not exist within the markets you serve at your price point. Know what you want, make the selection, trust your partners opinions and get the candidate on board. Compensation will continue to be a major determination if the candidate accepts your offer. Certainly, your culture, your brand, the role will play into the selection process but in the end, we feel compensation still is the number one consideration and the number one reason that a candidate will or will not accept your offer. Economic uncertainly plays a big role in this equation and with higher interests still prevailing, guaranteed income is highly desired. What this means is that you really need to understand your competition in the market and what price point will truly get you the employee you desire.
2025 will be a year where people management becomes a major priority for distributors. Your team will play a major role in producing a profitable, successful year but without good people the chances of being successful diminish greatly.
Now more than ever, your team will be highlighted and benchmarked against every other investment that your company makes. People make a company successful; you can have the greatest technology, the best brands and the best culture but if you don’t have the best people, you will not dominate your market.
For questions or inquires please contact->
Chris Salvadore
Global Recruiters Network- Coastal
Director | Corporate Accounts and Research
csalvadore@grncoastal.com
508-330-5117 cell
