We recently held a talent acquisition workshop in Chicago, bringing together 20 HR and talent leaders to confront the evolving recruitment landscape in 2024. The event, co-hosted by Sevenstep and WorkLLama, addressed key trends impacting client demands and explored strategies for navigating the current state of flux.

Tom Leeper from Sevenstep opened with a keynote on various issues including the struggles of gender pay gaps, demanding return-to-work policies, the invalidation of non-compete clauses, and the impact AI is already having on TA. He also noted that a significant portion of tech layoffs were concentrated in just a few companies and predicted that the upcoming election would likely temporarily slow hiring.

Diversity and inclusion discussions highlighted that increasing overall hiring is the simplest way to boost diversity. As hiring volumes have decreased, there’s a need to pivot D&I strategies within organizations. The roundtable discussions focused on designing a Talent Acquisition (TA) dashboard for today’s market, suggesting features like heat maps for hiring challenges, insights into market sentiment, and clear visibility into internal talent pools and hiring priorities were identified as crucial elements.

Kevin Poll from WorkLLama underscored the growing trend of candidate ghosting, highlighting the importance of fostering talent communities over simply maintaining candidate pools. Roundtable participants advocated for improvements in job descriptions, pay transparency, and clear communication of benefits to enhance the application process and onboarding experience.

The concluding panel predicted that AI and automation will continue to reshape the recruitment landscape. However, they also stressed the enduring significance of strong talent acquisition functions to executive leadership, expressing optimism about the evolving role of talent acquisition within organizations.