2024 Workplace Learning Report: L&D Powers the AI Future
The workplace is changing in ways we couldn’t have imagined just one year ago. The rise of Gen AI, the marked increase in return-to-office mandates, macroeconomic uncertainty, and the increasingly competitive market for talent with in-demand skills are reshaping the talent landscape.
Talent acquisition (TA) will be at the forefront of helping employers navigate these and other challenges, but the talent playbooks of the past will no longer apply. As employer priorities shift, TA will need new skills, new tools, and agility to attract, hire, and retain the best talent.
To gain deeper insights into what’s ahead for TA, we surveyed thousands of recruiting professionals, spoke with top talent leaders, and analyzed billions of data points generated on the LinkedIn platform. The following are six predictions that will help talent professionals usher in the new world of work.
Explore the report's 6 predictions by theme
Prediction 1
Prediction 1
When we asked talent leaders to predict some of the biggest trends that will influence TA in the coming year, many had the same answer: Generative AI.
While just 27% of the talent professionals surveyed by LinkedIn say that they’re using or experimenting with Gen AI, six out of 10 are optimistic about AI in recruitment, and the number of recruiters who added AI skills to their profiles jumped 14% last year.
For the first time in years, there’s a fundamental shift coming to talent acquisition and it’s driven by AI and automation.”
John Vlastelica
CEO at Recruiting Toolbox
Click to play background video
Click to pause background video
Click to play background video
Click to pause background video
Click to play background video
Click to pause background video
Click to play background video
Click to pause background video
Prediction 2
Prediction 2
Employers are recognizing that taking a skills-based approach to hiring and talent development is critical to success. By not focusing solely on pedigree, companies are able to widen their talent pools and find qualified workers who they may have missed in the past.
As the skills needed for companies to succeed continue to evolve, TA will be on the frontline of developing skills-based hiring, upskilling, and internal mobility programs that enable companies to adapt.
While adopting a skills-based approach to talent after years of prioritizing degrees may require challenging the status quo for many organizations, the talent leaders we spoke with see big advantages.
Not only does skills-based hiring help companies identify the most qualified talent, it can also open the door to individuals from historically marginalized groups who may not have a degree, and create a more diverse talent pipeline. In fact, LinkedIn data shows that focusing on skills can increase talent pools by 10x. With 80% of surveyed recruiting pros saying their organizations are committed to creating a more diverse workforce, skills-based hiring is set to gain traction in the years ahead.
Many companies are taking a step towards skills-based hiring by simply removing degree requirements from their job descriptions. In fact, the number of jobs listed on the LinkedIn platform that omit degree requirements jumped 36% between 2019 and 2022.
We have to help leaders expand the way they think about talent. Yes, education is valued. But there is no longer a ‘best’ or ‘ideal’ candidate based on pedigree. Brilliance is everywhere and it’s about tapping into knowledge, skills, and potential.”
Angela Benjamin
General Manager, Equity Outreach Strategies at Delta Air Lines
Click to play background video
Click to pause background video
Click to play background video
Click to pause background video
Prediction 3
Prediction 3
With hiring around the world still in decline, employers will be increasingly vigilant about making sure every hire is the right one.
“If you’re not going to be growing as much in the coming year, you want to have a degree of comfort that you have the right people,” says Amy Schultz, global head of talent acquisition at Canva. In fact, recruiting pros say sourcing high quality candidates is the No. 1 objective in 2024.
Click to play background video
Click to pause background video
Click to play background video
Click to pause background video
While quality of hiring is becoming more important, it is also notoriously difficult for companies to track and measure. To do so effectively, employers will need to first determine what qualifies as a “quality hire” at their organization and then choose the variables they’ll measure. The following are some of the factors that TA leaders told us they consider:
There’s also optimism around the potential for Gen AI to help inform quality of hire. “In the future, I think there’s a possibility that Gen AI could help us string together data points to tell a richer story about the success of a hire and their likely trajectory,” says Mark E. Smith, senior director, global talent acquisition at Medtronic.
For years, TA has been focused on metrics like time-to-fill and acceptance rates. But today, leadership is asking us about the quality of our hires and how we are measuring that.”
The definition of a “quality hire” is also changing. More companies are seeking workers with soft skills — skills that allow employees to interact effectively in the workplace. In fact, among the 10 most sought-after skills in LinkedIn’s top ten skills list, six are soft skills, including communication, leadership and analytical skills.
Employers are also increasingly focused on hiring individuals whose values align with the company’s principles and mission. “Employees who understand, live, and share our values are the ones who best empathize with and service our customers, grow through feedback, and help us navigate change,” says Bryan Mayo, head of talent acquisition at Atlassian.
Prediction 4
Prediction 4
The talent leaders and professionals we spoke with and surveyed made one thing very clear: Recruiting teams want to do a better job helping organizations anticipate labor market ups and downs and ensure that they’re able to pivot quickly.
One goal is to avoid the talent shortages that plagued companies in 2021. “We’ve seen huge swings in demand in the last five years that have required us to be nimble and stay ahead of changing market conditions,” says Troy Victor, general manager, talent acquisition at Delta Air Lines.
TA leaders will also make a strong effort to ensure their teams are able to quickly adapt to changes in the labor market and their organization’s goals. Successful recruiters will be able to pivot from one industry to the next and be prepared to apply their skills to other parts of the business.
“You have to build a recruiting team that you can suddenly point in a different direction tomorrow,” says Glen Goodman, chief talent officer at healthcare provider ChenMed and president of Talent Matters. “And that also means investing in your recruiters to allow them to be cross-functional and build their skills.”
Every recruiter needs to be able to be flexible and deploy into hotspots versus specializing in specific domains. We didn’t do that a year ago, two years ago, or three years ago. But it’s critical for staying agile.”
Erin Scruggs
Head of Global Talent Acquisition at LinkedIn
Increasingly, TA pros can be expected to be “full-stack” recruiters who can work seamlessly across different functions and stages of the hiring process. In fact, LinkedIn data reveals how recruiters are extending their skills and moving beyond the silos that previously separated them.
The top skills for different recruiting roles used to be fairly unique — but now that roles have become more cross-functional, there’s significantly more overlap between skills. That means it’s easier for recruiters to pivot from one functional area to another as needed.
Click to play background video
Click to pause background video
Click to play background video
Click to pause background video
Prediction 5
Prediction 5
There’s little doubt that employers are calling workers back to the office in droves. But something else is clear too: These policies will make it harder for employers to hire top talent.
Recruiting pros whose companies require employees to be fully or mostly in-office report negative impacts on their recruiting efforts, including reduced talent pools, fewer applicants, and increased competition. In comparison, companies who allow employees to choose their work location see a positive impact on recruiting. That’s because having a flex work policy yields a larger talent pool, more job applicants, and a better employer brand.
Flexible work as an employee value proposition (EVP) has seen an increase in importance over the past few years — especially for Gen Z. According to LinkedIn data, the importance of flexible work as an EVP grew by 10% among all job seekers and 14% among Gen Z job seekers from 2021 to 2023.
This is reflected in candidate behavior on LinkedIn. Employers who are considered to have flexible work policies enjoy a sizable hiring advantage: they are 16% more likely to have candidates accept their InMails and 29% more likely to receive an application from a candidate who viewed one of their jobs.
In addition, Linkedin data shows job seekers’ interest in remote roles continues to be high, despite a decrease in the number of fully remote roles.
Workers have grown accustomed to flexible work arrangements, and they’re unwilling to give it up. “Top talent wants to innovate, work alongside smart teams, and have their work impact customers,” says Bryan Mayo of Atlassion. “But, they no longer want achievement to require sacrificing flexibility, family time, and personal aspirations.”
No one is more aware of the demand for flex work than hiring professionals, who are receiving first-hand feedback from candidates. While TA doesn’t set policy, TA leaders can share real-time data and advocate for flex work. This includes showing the addressable market and what’s possible if you look for talent in other geographies, as well as sharing anecdotes of how remote employees are succeeding.
“We have to become storytellers, both with data and then also with anecdotes about how remote employees are succeeding,” says Erin Scruggs. “I think that’s really important.”
TA’s job is to show business stakeholders how the talent pool shrinks when we don’t think about flexibility. There’s going to be some goodwill built up for companies that have been consistent with flex policies.”
Gregory Karanastasis
Global Head of Talent Acquisition at Accenture
Prediction 6
Prediction 6
Gen Z will account for more than a quarter of the global workforce by 2025. But recruiting pros aren’t confident about their ability to attract and retain this newest cohort. In fact, they say it will be one of their biggest challenges in the coming years.
Given the hurdles TA faces in connecting with Gen Z, it’s no wonder that employer branding will remain a critical priority in the year ahead: For the second year in a row, employer branding is the recruitment function that’s expected to receive the greatest increase in spend, with 57% of recruiting pros predicting their investment in employer branding will increase in the coming year.
To succeed in attracting and retaining Gen Z, TA will need to gain a strong handle on Gen Z’s unique set of attributes. Having come of age during a global pandemic, social justice movements, and the climate crisis, Gen Z cares deeply about working for companies that share their values. “Gen Z won’t compromise their principles for a job,” says Stacey Gordon, inclusive workplace culture consultant at Rework Work.
While compensation, work-life balance and flexibility are important for Gen Z, working for a company that offers professional development is critical. Compared to all other generations, Gen Z is 36% more likely to prioritize advancement opportunities and 34% more likely to prioritize skill development opportunities.
Click to play background video
Click to pause background video
Click to play background video
Click to pause background video
“We know that Gen Z really values learning and development opportunities. If you’re not investing in their growth, you’re not going to be able to hold onto them. They will prioritize their own career development over any long-term commitment to an organization,” says Nicky Vallelly of Google Deepmind.
TA will need to authentically communicate not only their organization’s values, but the hiring manager’s values as well. “We’ve all worked for companies where one department works differently from another,” Stacey says. “Being able to articulate the team values and working style in order to make sure there is value alignment will be even more important with Gen Z candidates.”
Gen Z isn’t interested in snazzy marketing collateral. Employer branding efforts need to go away from post-production towards revealing employees’ work and experience at the company to a wider audience.”
Adapting to the changes sweeping the recruitment industry is no easy task. Recruiters will need a growth mindset, a willingness to learn new skills, and the ability to harness new technologies. But for those who do so there will be a big payoff: the opportunity to reshape the world of work and help organizations build the workforce of the future.
Popular resources
Resources
LinkedIn Learning courses - unlocked until April 30th
AI & recruiting
Skills-based hiring, upskilling, & internal mobility
How to Accelerate Skills-First Hiring in the Age of AI
Learn more
Why Skills-First Hiring Is Key to Your Talent Planning — and How to Get Started
Learn more
2 Companies That Are Getting Internal Mobility Right
Learn more
Amazon’s Prime Perk: A Robust Upskilling Program That Trains Workers for In-Demand Jobs
Learn more
Quality of hire
Agility
Flexible work
LinkedIn Research surveyed 1,453 recruiting professionals in management seniority roles or higher (1,202 corporate recruiting pros, 261 search and staffing pros), in addition to 498 hiring managers. Survey respondents are LinkedIn members who were selected to participate based on information in their LinkedIn profile and qualified based on survey responses. This survey was conducted in six languages across 23 countries between October and November 2023.
Candidate priorities and inclusion preferences are based on LinkedIn’s Talent Drivers monthly survey of global members, including 16,688 members surveyed in November 2023. To measure candidate priorities, respondents are asked to “select the most important factors when considering a job opportunity,” and can select up to five of 15 employer value propositions.
Behavioral insights for this report were derived from the billions of data points generated by the 1 billion members in over 200 countries on LinkedIn today. Unless otherwise noted, all data reflects aggregated LinkedIn member activity as of January 1, 2024.
This report was informed by insightful interviews with recruiting leaders around the world, to whom we owe our sincere thanks, including:
Isabelle Bastide at PageGroup
Angela Benjamin at Delta Air Lines
Glen Goodman at ChenMed
Stacey Gordon at Rework Work
Jude James at UST
Gregory Karanastasis at Accenture
Hung Lee at Recruiting Brainfood
François-Xavier Mallet at Alstom
Bryan Mayo at Atlassian
Amy Schultz at Canva
Erin Scruggs at LinkedIn
Kristin Shulman at Booking.com
Mark E. Smith at Medtronic
Michael Smith at Randstad Enterprise
Nicky Vallelly at Google DeepMind
Troy Victor at Delta Air Lines
John Vlastelica at Recruiting Toolbox
Jamila Smith-Dell (Insights Lead)
Cesar Zulaica
Greg Lewis
Manas Mohapatra
Stephanie Scalice (Research Lead)
Meng Zhao
Global report
Staffing report
Regional data cuts
Australia | Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg | Brazil | France | Germany, Austria and Switzerland | India | Japan | Mexico | Middle East and North Africa | Southeast Asia | United Kingdom