Top 6 Hiring and Recruitment Trends of 2025

2025 is here and with this new year, comes new trends and data points that will be shaping the recruitment and talent landscape across the industries. While many ongoing talent trends are here to stay, some will become the founding base for next year’s evolution.

With many organizations aiming to leverage the AI revolution, the focus will shift toward AI-driven recruitment and skill-based hiring, and policies like remote and hybrid models will continue to shape the hiring and recruitment industry.

But the question is, how do we want to move forward in the industry of underlying opportunities? With newfangled tech becoming the starting point of the grid, the future-ready workforce will want more than just fat paychecks and scavenger hunt activities.

As we start the new year with optimism and paving the way for new opportunities, it’s always a good idea to take concrete measures from past trends and gear up for the future of tech and talent. Here are 2025 recruitment trends that we must keep an eye on as they reshape the recruitment industry.

Top 6 hiring and recruitment trends of 2025

1. Ai-Driven Recruitment

Recruitment is evolving rapidly, and AI is at the core of this transformation. In 2025 and beyond, AI recruitment tools and workflows will continue to reshape the recruitment process by automating manual tasks like resume screening & scheduling interviews.

About one-third of staffing professionals believe that AI recruitment tools allow them to focus more on strategy, instead of doing manual and monotonous tasks.

In the recruitment arena, finding the right person for the job is half the battle. AI is able to analyze data at much faster speeds to match candidates with roles. Candidates chosen by AI are 14% more likely to pass interviews than those selected by humans, according to a study conducted by Columbia

Business School. Not only that, the same study found that candidates sourced through AI are also 18% more likely to say yes to job offers.

AI is streamlining hiring and improving efficiency by augmenting applicant tracking systems and having smart chatbots that engage with candidates to match candidates with roles based on skills, experience, and cultural fit. AI automates repetitive tasks, improves candidate matching, and fosters inclusion so that you can focus on what matters: building strong teams and hitting your hiring goals.

As per What Workers Want 2024 report, around half of the employers surveyed (49%) observed better-quality candidates making it through to first-stage interviews. In 2025, AI could play an even more prominent role in identifying and attracting top talent, reducing bias, and giving data-driven insights that help improve hiring decisions.

Along with utilizing AI in recruitment stages, organizations should always look forward to maintaining a human level of intervention, empowering their people with the proper tools and training to truly understand AI’s opportunities and limitations while leveraging it in the recruitment processes.

2. Skill-Based Hiring

Just like in 2024, skill-based hiring will be a primary focus in 2025 as well. Companies, instead of prioritizing degrees or lengthy resumes, will be focusing on what candidates bring to the table.

Skill-based hiring acts as a practical approach that addresses skill shortages and opens doors for a more diverse talent pool without limiting the companies to traditional education-based hiring.

Big players such as Google and IBM are already ahead of the curve. While Google shifted to skill-based hiring to address labor market skill gaps, IBM took it a step further by creating apprenticeship programs that emphasize skill-building over formal education requirements.

Another aspect is that it gives you better predictability of job performance over the candidates hired traditionally. Micro-credentials are on the rise where short-term, focused certifications and boot camps are gaining credibility as indicators of expertise. This approach helps organizations find great talent and also improves retention even on a shorter notice period. According to McKinsey, employees without degrees tend to stay 34% longer than those with them.

3. Continued Focus on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion)

With changing times, employers’ focus on diversity and inclusion has also shifted. Many organizations have acknowledged the rising importance of diversity and inclusion in the workplace. DE&I strategies are now part of many organization’s annual objectives and initiatives. In fact, many studies conclude that companies that implement DE&I policies in their organization outperform competitors.

Moreover, when diverse minds come on board, unique ideas start coming on the table and organizations start making fast bucks. These policies are also prevalent to maintain a sense of trust and harmony in the workplace. An employee feels more comfortable and included when they are not judged on their gender, race, color, etc.

4. EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE – Onboarding 2.0

Enhanced onboarding experience has become the need of the hour. This ensures that new hires feel connected and productive from day one. In the age of digital transformation leading the talent markets, it’s rather essential for an employer to let the employee feel right at home from day one while keeping up with the latest trends. Gone are the days when recruitment was driven by the employer, now it’s about the experience that makes employer branding prominent inside and out. Top talent has a plethora of options in front of them and many employers have understood this, which is why employee experience speaks from day 1 and this trend we will be seeing in 2025 too.

5. Flexibility through Hybrid Work Models

The pandemic brought prominence to remote work, and even after 4 years, many organizations are still debating on whether to ask employees to return-to-office (RTO) or not. But, if you’re like most companies who listen to their employees, you will probably have some thoughts on hybrid work, and for good reason.

In 2025, companies will be offering more full-circle flexibility. 64% of organizations globally have adopted hybrid work models, as per Zoom’s whitepaper. That’s a huge jump from pre-pandemic times.

Why the shift in remote work trends? Employees are asking for flexibility. When employees speak, smart companies listen. This allows people to work in ways that suit them best and unleash their full potential.

Organizations that adhere to conventional working methods will likely find it challenging to attract and keep employees. The more adaptable an organization is, the greater its opportunity to create an engaged, motivated, and loyal workforce.

Remote work has become commonplace for the majority of office employees, with 76% of those surveyed reporting that their companies have adopted a hybrid model.

By the end of 2025, analysts anticipate that companies employing hybrid models will experience

a 20% increase in employee satisfaction and engagement. Conversely, those enforcing strict return-to-office policies may not see the same results.

In fact, 80% of employees capable of remote work express a desire to continue in hybrid or fully remote environments, according to a Gallup study.

6. Employee Well-Being

Another major workforce trend that recruiters must pay attention to is employee well-being, as this has emerged as a top priority for many employees and employers. Focus on worker health and wellness is not a brand-new trend anymore, but a continuing one.

A 2023 Deloitte study found that one out of three employees are constantly struggling with exhaustion or poor mental health, and only 56% of employees think their company’s executives care about their well-being.

A survey from Qualtrics revealed that 50% of frontline employees were not satisfied with their pay and benefits and roughly 40% of respondents expressed dissatisfaction with work processes as well as felt unprepared to adapt to changes at work. These statistics show that organizations have more to do in this regard. And employees are choosing well-being over a heavy paycheck more than ever. As the cost of healthcare continues to rise, employees become more well-being cautious than being overworked.

We are living in the age of tech where transformation is the theme of the industry. To garnish the talent for the future of work, we have to be proactive and adapt to the ongoing trends with pace. Admittedly, the new phase of life will bring new trends followed by initial challenges, but we have to keep looking at past trends and learn from them constantly.

2025 is expected to witness heightened investment in HR Tech at two levels – 1) processes to simplify repetitive HR tasks, reducing administrative burden  2) use of smarter recruitment tools like AI chatbots and ATS to improve recruitment performance.

Companies will continue to invest in the adoption of new-age hybrid workplace technologies to make the work experience more personalized, productive, and effective.

Furthermore, candidate experience will continue to be a key focus to address rising attrition and the year will see innovative policies and remuneration models by corporates across industries. Investment in upskilling both from corporates’ and employees’ perspectives is expected to see tremendous growth to bridge the current and near-future skill gap. This will be vital for employees to stay relevant in a demanding and ever-evolving job market.

Varun Sachdeva

SVP and APAC Head, NLB Services