There have been some major shifts in hiring trends over the last few years, which have impacted the job market as a whole. It’s important that companies of all types and sizes be aware of these trends to stay competitive, know how to attract top talent, and reduce costs. One notable trend in 2023 is the increased hiring of virtual assistants — to cut menial work, improve productivity, and enhance engagement for other employees. This ties in with the underlying reasons for many of the other hiring statistics and trends.
Remote Work
Workers have appreciated the move to remote work that took off during the pandemic — now they want it to continue. In fact, 86% of employees say they would like to work from home either all the time or for part of the week. The good news is most companies are in agreement — 70% of employers who took part in the US Flexible Working Policies & Practices Survey said they are switching to a hybrid model of work. To make this possible, two-thirds of employers are even redesigning their workspaces.
Virtual operations have also extended into hiring practices. For instance, the use of video interviews grew by 57% between 2019 and 2022. Although social distancing may be over, most employers say they will continue to conduct interviews over video.
Difficulties Filling Positions
Since they’re struggling to fill positions, employers may need to offer perks like hybrid or fully-remote work. The 2022 Future of Work Global Survey discovered that 90% of employers are struggling to find people to fill positions due to a skills gap. Making positions more appealing can help companies attract top talent — and employees want more than just salary increases. For example, the 2022 Wellbeing and Voluntary Benefits Survey found that 79% of employees want benefits like medical cover, paid time off, and performance bonuses.
Another issue impacting the talent shortage is the large number of people searching for new jobs. In the 2022 Engagement and Retention Report, 44% of people said they intended to look for a new job in 2022. Employers need to take steps to retain current employees just as much as they need to attract new ones. Key to this is making work interesting, reducing stress for employees, and limiting the amount of monotonous work employees have — all things that are possible by hiring virtual assistants.
Hiring Practices
There have also been changes in recent years to how employers approach hiring. For example, there has been an increase in the use of social media to find candidates. This is effective because almost half of all professionals on social media follow companies to learn about job openings. In fact, social networks are the most popular place for professionals to find jobs after online job boards.
To make job listings more appealing, hiring managers need to include a salary range — ads with a salary range receive 75% more clicks than ads without. They also need to make sure the application process is easy, to avoid job seekers abandoning an application halfway through due to its complexity or length. A final factor to approve appeal is branding. When employers are able to build a reputation for being a great place to work, they receive 50% more qualified applicants, reduce the cost per hire by half, and often shorten the time it takes to hire a candidate by as much as half. Good branding also lowers turnover by 28%.
Once employers have candidates for a position, they need to move fast. Top candidates remain on the market for an average of just 10 days. To process applications faster, companies are using approaches such as:
- Automation and AI
- Hiring virtual assistants to support their HR teams with the most time-consuming stages of the hiring process
- Using structured interviews to make comparisons between candidates easier
A final hiring trend is one that has persisted over the years: using employee referrals. This is popular for several reasons, including that:
- It saves an average of $7,500 in productivity and sourcing costs per hired employee
- Workers from referrals stay an average of four years, compared to just two years for workers hired through job boards
- It takes just 20 to 40 days to fill positions with referrals compared to 60 days without a referral
Company Culture
Hiring trends for 2023 show that company culture is a major consideration for workers. Close to half of all job seekers say company culture is an important factor. In addition, 70% of professionals say a bad workplace culture would be a dealbreaker, even at a leading company. This is more than those who name lower pay or forgoing a fancy title as dealbreakers. Lastly, a quarter of workers say seeking better company culture would be a reason for changing jobs and 15% have turned down an offer due to company culture.
Recruiters also understand the significance of company culture — 90% of companies say they have rejected candidates due to the lack of a cultural fit. To ensure candidates can find an organization with the type of company culture they want, hiring managers need to make their values clear in their job posts, social media profiles, and business websites. This is key for preventing high turnover.
Diversity and Inclusion
Another quality that candidates value in companies is a diverse and inclusive culture. Three-quarters of job seekers say this is a factor they consider when deciding where to apply and what job offer they’ll accept. Since diversity and inclusion encompasses a wide range of characteristics, there are many ways for companies to embrace this trend.
For instance, businesses can emphasize inclusion during the recruitment process by using gender-neutral terms in communications with applicants. Plus, adding salary information to job posts is once again advantageous — this time because it shows that the company is committed to equal pay for all genders. Another way to gain gender equality is to use blind recruitment techniques. This involves assessing candidates without access to details that indicate their gender and allows hiring managers to make unbiased decisions.
Organizations also need to show they’re striving to become more diverse, which they can do by targeting job posts at applicants from a wider range of backgrounds. For example, they can offer more flexibility for work hours, advertise fully-remote positions to target candidates around the globe, or be open to hiring candidates with less traditional career paths. In addition, it can be beneficial to talk about diversity on social media. Employers who did this on LinkedIn increased their applications from women by 26%.
Being more diverse and inclusive has benefits that extend beyond appealing to candidates in the hiring process — it also leads to better financial performance for the company. For instance, organizations in the top quartile for ethnic diversity are 35% more likely to see financial returns than those in the bottom quartile. Another benefit is greater creativity and innovation, which gives your company a competitive advantage.
It’s clear that companies are paying attention to this trend. A third of HR leaders say diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is one of their top five priorities. To achieve their goals, they are going beyond the HR department and involving senior management throughout the company. Many are even forming DEI committees made up of a diverse group of team members. This gives leaders the chance to listen to employees at all levels of the company about where they are falling short and how they can improve. Finally, many are taking inspiration from companies that are already succeeding at DEI to copy ideas that could work for them.
Onboarding
Onboarding is a crucial part of the hiring process — including for remote employees. The first impressions new hires develop from the onboarding process are long lasting and have an impact on everything from the employees’ performance to how long they remain at the company. For instance, a well-designed onboarding process can improve productivity by more than 70% and retention by 82%. To achieve this, businesses need to:
- Incorporate tech into the training process rather than just using classroom learning.
- Use automation to speed up processes, track the activities employees need to complete, and send reminders. For tasks where automation is not possible, you can streamline onboarding by using the support of a virtual assistant.
- Pair new hires with a mentor or use a buddy program. Bear in mind that the more often new hires meet with their onboarding buddy, the more quickly they’ll become productive in their role.
- Make onboarding a structured program — this increases the chances that employees will still be at the company three years later by 58%.
To go the extra mile, it’s even better to implement a pre-onboarding process. This means staying in contact throughout the hiring process, right up until the employee starts working.
Onboarding is not just important for the benefits — a negative experience during onboarding doubles the risk that new hires will start searching for a new job soon after they start at the company. Unfortunately, this is the reality for many organizations, with only 12% of employees saying their company does a great job at onboarding. This is likely due, at least partially, to the fact that more than half of all organizations use onboarding to focus on paperwork rather than for engagement and helping workers feel prepared for their new role. Currently, only 29% of workers say they feel fully prepared after onboarding.
What Jobs Are Trending in 2023?
Another way to look at how the world of work is changing in 2023 is to consider trending jobs.
1. Virtual Assistant
Everyone from executives to entrepreneurs and small business owners needs someone to support them in their daily activities. More companies are hiring virtual assistants because VAs can provide them with a wide range of services. In fact, they can handle anything that falls outside of core business tasks. Plus, they’re flexible — businesses can contract VAs for just the hours they need and the VAs work remotely, meaning there’s no need to provide them with any office space, equipment, or training.
2. Full Stack Developer
According to Indeed, the job with the greatest growth in terms of number of positions is full stack developer. The position involves both front- and backend development of applications and websites. This is essential for a huge number of businesses. Furthermore, there has been a large amount of movement in the tech field recently as tech giants have been laying off employees after creating teams that were larger than they needed. Small companies are taking advantage of this to attract top talent that is now on the market.
3. Data Scientist and Director of Data Science
Another tech job trending in 2023 is data scientist. There is almost no industry today that does not generate a huge amount of data. Whereas all this data could be useful, it first needs someone to analyze it and transform it into actionable information — this is the job of a data scientist. The position typically involves creating models, mining and cleaning data, and presenting the findings.
A related growing position is director of data science. A professional in this role is responsible for overseeing the policies, plans, and goals, providing guidance, and determining the appropriate techniques for the team to use.
4. Listing Agent
When looking at job growth in terms of percentage of job share, Indeed identified the most in-demand job as listing agent. It saw a change in job share of 591% between 2020 and 2023. This makes sense when you consider that more people are relocating or changing their homes to take advantage of the opportunities provided by remote work. At the same time, businesses have different requirements for office space than before.
5. Head of Revenue Operations
The fastest-growing job according to the 2023 LinkedIn Jobs on the Rise list is head of revenue operations. The role involves overseeing all activities that generate revenue for a company, including sales and marketing. The growth of this job emphasizes the concern businesses have to drive profitable growth.
6. Psychiatric Nurse
There has been a slight decline in demand for most healthcare workers now COVID-19 cases are under control, but mental health jobs are still trending. Psychiatric nurses are seeing the most growth, although all kinds of therapy and counseling jobs are trending up. Businesses should take note of this trend — it indicates that workers are likely to benefit from mental health support in the workplace.
7. Diversity and Inclusion Manager
To meet their DEI goals, more companies are hiring diversity and inclusion managers. This is particularly important for bringing younger talent into teams — 72% of workers aged 18 to 34 say they would turn down an offer or even leave a company if they thought their manager was not supportive of DEI initiatives.
8. Solar Consultant
Customers and employees alike want to see that businesses are committed to reducing their carbon footprint. This has led to an increase in demand for solar consultants. The role involves advising businesses about solar power systems, including what size and design would be most suitable. Furthermore, switching to solar can have financial benefits for businesses, especially when they work with knowledgeable solar consultants who are able to provide them with a cost–benefit analysis, inform them about tax breaks and other incentives, and handle complex processes like obtaining permits.
9. Digital Transformation Consultant
It is impossible for businesses to stay competitive unless they embrace the digital world. This has led to demand for digital transformation consultants, who can provide support to companies that are still doing things the old way. The role involves creating a customized strategy for clients to improve their operations, customer engagement, and efficiency through digital strategies. Depending on the client, this could mean adopting new technologies, better understanding digital culture, or optimizing existing processes.
10. Pen Tester
The downside of increasing digital operations is it puts companies at risk of cyber attacks. A pen tester looks for vulnerabilities in networks and web applications. After uncovering flaws, the professional then gives the company recommendations to make the system less prone to attacks.
11. Site Reliability Engineer
Digital systems may also fail because they don’t meet the business’s needs. A site reliability engineer can assess the systems to improve the design in addition to considering the scalability of the system to enable the company to grow in the future. In addition to providing these assessment services, site reliability engineers offer ongoing support, such as monitoring for issues and responding to maintenance problems to reduce downtime.
The underlying message of many of the hiring statistics for 2023 is that to attract and retrain workers, it is necessary to keep them engaged. This requires improving company culture, flexibility, and workloads. Hiring virtual assistants can help with all of these — which is one reason why virtual assistants are one of the top jobs for 2023. You can find a skilled virtual assistant to support your team at myVA360. We’ll match you with someone who will carry out exactly the types of tasks you need, whether that’s administration, social media management, graphic design, or something else. Contact us to schedule your four-hour free trial.
