Top HR and Recruitment Insights to Watch for in 2025
Did you know that 74% of Canadian professionals are currently seeking new job opportunities? I was interviewed twice recently by Radio-Canada about this latest research and its implications on the workforce.
Of course, January is the perfect time for new changes and new beginnings. Beyond timing however, there are two key drivers for this overwhelming job-seeking trend:
First, Canadians recognize that if they want to make more money, they need to move jobs – plain and simple. That is how they can secure their biggest bump in pay. (Interestingly, Newsweek just published an article about absurd salary demands where the publication quoted my take on how to identify entitled jobseekers.) Still, this inclination to jump ship will be a big challenge for those tasked with improving employee retention this year, and success will undoubtedly require more creative, out-of-the-box thinking.
Second, as we see more employers wanting to implement back-to-office work mandates, we are also seeing growing backlash from job candidates who now view their commute-free work-from-home lifestyle as sacred. In-demand workers are just not willing to make compromises, and companies who remain stubborn on back-to-office policies are losing out on the best talent. We’re seeing this every day.
Beyond the surface of these realities however, there are other significant undercurrents at play, influencing the jobseeker psyche. We know for example, that many workers today are both underwhelmed and overwhelmed at the same time. People want to leave their jobs because they are bored. Constant learning is a critical currency in today’s marketplace. Conversely however, as new emerging technologies and AI are re-inventing our work processes, recent research from Gartner has found: 60% of employees are NOT getting job coaching that support their core job skills.
The reality is jobs are changing and are increasingly requiring different skills. Not having those skills will induce overwhelm of course. In fact, Gartner predicts that this growing skills gap will increase from 13% that was reported in 2023 to a projected 31% by 2027!
What does this all mean for HR professionals and hiring managers in 2025? How can we tackle these challenges and come out on top? To make sense of it all, our team analyzed all the trends we have been seeing on-the-job, in context with the latest research findings on recruitment.
“Employers expect 39% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030.”
To this end, we are pleased to share with you, our top HR and recruitment insights worth noting for 2025, to help you hire and retain talent successfully throughout the year:
- Leading with trust: Did you know companies like LinkedIn, Adobe, Netflix, and Zoom all offer employees unlimited vacation days? Whether it’s vacation days or sick days, policies for unlimited paid time off have proven to be a great talent attraction strategy. Research has also shown that this approach results in reduced burnout, and increased productivity thanks to employee ownership, where staff feel more committed to their work because they feel trusted. We still see some employers worrying that employees will take advantage of such policies, however, data shows such perks are rarely abused. Employees deeply value such privileges and don’t want to risk losing them. In our experience, when companies empower their staff and give them freedom, we see their talent rise to the occasion and excel.
Consider too, that in a climate where a large majority of Canadians are looking for a new job, a Harris Poll found that 48% of respondents said would sacrifice a higher salary if it meant they’d receive more paid time off.
- Busting boredom: Tackle workplace boredom and disengagement by creating continuous learning opportunities for staff. These learning strategies can include: Skills-based training (internally or externally), traditional mentorship, reverse mentorship (where junior employees mentor senior employees), cross-departmental collaborations, job-shadowing, etc. In 2025 and beyond, the most effective loyalty and employee engagement strategies will be tethered to personal growth delivered via some type of structured learning.
- Embracing experimentation: Speaking of learning, with AI and emerging technologies evolving at breakneck speeds in the workplace, many tech experts are now encouraging workers to simply start experimenting with various AI tools. Their advice is to explore and experiment widely, instead of investing too deeply into specific platforms (which could change or become obsolete at a moment’s notice). A culture of experimentation also enables employees to welcome trial and error thinking where it’s okay if things don’t work out right away. Each experience provides more compounded learning. This strategy will be especially important given the fact that 1 in 2 Canadian workers have never used AI for work according to PwC’s study entitled: AI Jobs Barometer.
- Cultivating skilled workers (versus trying to find them): Many hiring managers are continuing to base their recruitment strategies on this notion: We think people who have never done something before at work – can’t do that work, so we look for candidates with “previous experience” when hiring. This is a fallacy. And given the glaring skills gap emerging across Canada, it will be more important than ever before to focus recruitment efforts on evaluating potential in candidates versus expecting them to already come with the exact skills we’re looking for. Learning potential will become increasingly important when hiring in the coming years, with an expectation that workers will acquire specific skills while on-the-job.
- Career journeys for the win: Employee growth within an organization need not be linear. On average, Canadians will likely have three to five career changes within their lifetime, and will hold up to 15 different jobs. As such, HR and hiring managers today need to support job candidates (and current employees) in identifying potential career paths in their organizations, with an eye for the long game. Here, we should think creatively and unconventionally. We mustn’t assume every worker wants their manager’s job next. Career coaching on-the-job, and offering regular needs and opportunity assessments will take on increased importance in the coming years.
As we continue to navigate recruitment strategies in a jobseekers’ market (with no sign of this changing any time soon), we must make a concerted effort to become more intuitive to workers’ needs. This will enable us to stay competitive in attracting the best talent. Moreover, we must embrace the human side of our ever-growing technological immersion to cultivate a happy, motivated, and thus, highly productive workforce.
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If your organization needs some exceptional Bilingual (English/French) talent, call or email us today at: 416-236-3303, or by email at: [email protected]. We are networked with Canada’s most in-demand Bilingual talent, and it would be our pleasure to help you find your company’s next superstar. We look forward to speaking with you soon!