7 talent acquisition strategies for better hiring in 2025
Learn strategies for recruiting in a still-challenging market, including shifting to skills-based hiring, promoting company initiatives and establishing an employer brand.
As employment continues to grow amid a surprisingly persistent economic expansion, finding and hiring candidates is perhaps more difficult than ever. Sweeping demographic, technological and recruiting trends are complicating the challenge. Generation X and millennial workers have different job expectations than older generations, which calls for finding new ways to attract them. At the same time, many organizations have been scrapping longstanding recruitment practices and trying new approaches, such as skills-based hiring and recruiting tools automated with generative AI.
In "The Future of Recruiting 2024" survey by LinkedIn Talent Solutions, 54% of senior recruitment managers named sourcing high-quality candidates as their No. 1 objective. They are less interested in traditional hiring metrics, such as time to hire, and are instead striving to define the characteristics of a quality hire, such as soft skills, productivity and alignment with corporate values, the survey report said.
Besides adopting new techniques to attract quality hires, recruiters have sought to widen the talent pool by catering to the needs and experiences of today's job seekers, who tend to value employee experience and new ways of using technology.
Here are seven talent acquisition strategies for 2025 that can help HR leaders ensure their companies aren't left behind in the new hiring marketplace.
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Ultimate guide to recruitment and talent acquisition
1. Widen talent outreach
Sourcing talent in today's market requires more than posting the opening on job sites. Younger generations' social media habits suggest recruiters must familiarize themselves with websites outside of LinkedIn and job boards.
That means recruiters should consider the best sites and social media networks to find candidates of all ages rather than relying on old standbys, said Joe Campagna, owner of My Virtual HR Director, an HR outsourcing company in Plainfield, N.J.
"If you're looking for a brand-new, [recently graduated] programmer, you're probably going to go to Stack Overflow or GitHub," he said.
Looking for candidates in Facebook groups that focus on a particular interest could also yield possibilities, Campagna said. For example, a recruiter whose company needs an HR manager might look at a Facebook group for users of a particular HR software product.
2. Establish your employer brand
Much like establishing a customer-facing brand, companies must establish an employer brand based on what they want to convey to potential candidates about their organization.
A strong company culture must be in place already rather than trying to force one for the sake of recruiting, Campagna said. Companies must establish a company culture, then work on communicating it to potential candidates.
"If you can build your brand and build your culture into your brand, that will make a big difference in how and where you're recruiting," he said. "But if you don't have a good brand, [posting videos on] TikTok won't help you."
3. Promote company initiatives
Millennials and Generation Z now make up a significant portion of the workforce, and they're drawn to employers who prioritize social commitments, such as sustainability and diversity, and philanthropy efforts. Approximately nine in 10 Gen Zers and millennials said having a sense of purpose in their work is somewhat or very important to their job satisfaction and well-being, according to Deloitte's "2024 Gen Z and Millennial Survey." Nearly half said they rejected a potential employer for not aligning with their personal values on issues such as diversity, work-life balance and the environment.
Recruiters can respond by working with other departments to add sections to the company website to inform potential candidates about the organization's sustainability initiatives, for example.
Companies showcasing their philanthropy efforts might even convince their competitors to start similar programs, said Lauren Winans, CEO of Next Level Benefits, an HR consulting firm in Pittsburgh.
4. Include recruiting goals with overall business goals
Recruiting goals often exist separately from broader organizational goals. Instead, they should be tied more closely to the overall business strategy.
Company leaders must include recruiting goals with the rest of the organization's aims because meeting them might be necessary to achieve its other objectives, Winans said. For example, if a company is attempting to increase its revenue by 13% that year, it must have the proper talent in place to meet that specific goal.
Recruiters should also revisit recruiting goals more than once a year and update them based on factors like job market fluctuations and company profitability, she said.
"Recruiting and talent acquisition goals [should] be in step with the business while being agile enough to move off the goal if the direction needs to change," Winans said.
5. Deemphasize college degrees
Organizations are increasingly emphasizing skills-based recruiting and removing college degree requirements from some job listings, which is forcing recruiters to rethink how they advertise jobs.
Removing degree requirements opens up the applicant pool, said Bill Catlett, managing partner at Contented Cow Partners, a professional training and coaching company in Jacksonville, Fla. Applicants with less formal education might have lower salary requirements because they don't need to make payments on student loans. They might also be more interested in learning and growing, Catlett said. "[Deemphasizing degrees] changes your recruiting model a lot."
6. Create an employee referral program
Existing employees can help solve recruiting issues, and will likely feel more valued, if recruiters ask for their help bringing in new talent. A referral program that pays employees for a successful hire is a great way to engage the existing employee base," Winans said.
Recruiters should work with others at the company to establish a referral program or re-evaluate the organization's current program if employees aren't using it. "Employers don't use [referral programs] enough," Campagna said.
New employees might be a particularly valuable resource for referrals since they can potentially provide insight into former coworkers who might be interested in a new job, he said.
7. Ensure salary and benefits are competitive
Salary and benefits have always played a major role in impressing candidates, but they're especially critical in tight labor markets like today's. Recruiters must ensure their company's salaries and benefits are competitive so they can bring in top talent.
Company leaders should evaluate their industry's salary ranges and benefits annually and compare them to their organization's offerings, Winans said. Companies should also make the benefits package part of the employer brand so the organization stands out from the competition.
"People will make choices based on the total rewards, compensation and benefits packages, so it really is an important piece of the puzzle," she said.
Editor's note: TechTarget editors updated this article in late 2024 to reflect current trends and to improve the reader experience.
Christine Campbell is a freelance writer specializing in business and B2B technology.
