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The Future of Recruiting: how to win in the war for talent in 2023

Updated: Jan 8, 2023






For the past years, nothing in the world of work has been the same.


“The biggest reason for people leaving in the great resignation is that they don’t see any progression at their current job”

-Isabelle Bichler, co-founder and COO at retrain ai


After the Covid-19 pandemic led to a temporary hiring freeze in many industries, followed by the recession and mass layoffs especially in the tech industry, things should get better in 2023. Entirely new recruiting trends have emerged that were not at the top of HR managers' agendas a year ago. Here are the top three recruiting trends for companies to win in the war for talent in 2023 and beyond shared by leading HR experts.

  • Customising recruitment and job offers to be more individualistic and candidate-centred

  • Acknowledging and removing the biases of recruiting teams in order to cement DEI into your organisation

  • Optimising the inclusion of data, automation and AI in the recruitment process

01 On recruitment becoming more candidate centred

“With home office here to stay, there is no clear line between work and private life anymore. HR departments need to have the freedom to design people products and services for the human being behind the employee, and I think that’s the future.”

-Thomas Kohler Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at Tier

The new era of digitalisation is here to stay. Not only is it now fundamental to offer hybrid ways of working, HR departments need to have the responsibility and the freedom to develop products and services that cater to the human being. Companies will need to re-establish new and contemporary boundaries between home life and work life, if they want to stay ahead and win the war for talent in 2022.

Accept the change to the candidate pool and use it to your advantage

For all of us the pandemic meant some pros and cons in our daily life. One pro for employers according to Lucija Marković, VP of Outsourcing at Talentarium, is the wider candidate pool: “people from other countries and parents with young children are in a better position to participate in the labour market than they were before”. Thomas adds that this is a win for DEI, saying “we now have a global market, that means less excuses to be hiring only male leaders”. Now is the time to tap into hidden talents, such as career mums or talents who don’t want to relocate.

02 On diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI)

To take the next step forward in the commitment to DEI, companies must acknowledge that the unconscious biases of hiring teams could also be a hindering factor in the journey towards a more diverse workforce. Blind hiring is the process used to remove personal information from an application that could influence a hiring decision. Sophie Soulane, Head of Sales at Equalture, recommends blind hiring to “make the process as data driven as possible”.


So that’s how you get diverse talents in the door, but how do you retain them?


“Organisations need to focus on short term goals and offer employees a prospective for the next year or two rather than focusing on the wide and long term job prospective.”

  • Steffen Rother, Teamlead of Recruiting at EY


Additionally, companies must “make the path to growth transparent and ensure opportunities are handed out equally”, says Sophie.


Without a doubt, the pandemic has increasingly shone a light on the topic of mental health. Laura Ecker-Sperlich, Manager of Corporate Communications at PMI, says “retaining diverse talents is also about how they feel when working for us”. Since home office has reduced the number of contact hours between employees and employers, prioritising mental health and wellbeing should not be forgotten in the era of digitalisation.


Committed to DEI: goals for 2023

All experts emphasised that some of their next goals for recruiting include offering more workplace policies that are appealing for diverse candidates, such as flexible location and hours as well as offering more part time opportunities, including increasing the number of shared leadership models.

03 On data, automation and AI

When we consider how we can remove biases from the recruitment process, we think of making it automated. AI software can’t be biased right? Wrong. Ike Okosa, co-founder and CEO of eWorker, reveals that “AI can learn human biases, depending on who is developing the AI itself”. The key to avoiding the replication of biases is to ensure a diverse team builds the technology in the first place. It is also important to not only use the right data, but also to clean it of biases otherwise it can run the risk of enhancing and replicating human biases.

If you’re looking for ways to remove the biases from your recruitment process, check out our partner, Equalture, who have created a data-driven hiring tool to help companies find the best fit people. They use fun and short neuroscientific games to collect unbiased data on both the current team as well as candidates to base their hiring decisions on.


Human and machine- where is it heading?


AI is here to enhance HR, not replace it. Using the right data can significantly reduce time and cost per hire and produce a better employer-employee match. But as HR is a people centred business, the future contains a combination of both AI and people.


Are you eager to win in the war for talent? Check out our services to attract and retain talent here.



The female factor is a global career and leadership community on a mission to close the leadership gap by enabling the next generation of female leaders to get a seat at the table. We recently launched Europe’s first job platform for inclusive companies supporting employers to attract and retain female talents.

Talent Garden was founded in Brescia, Italy in 2011. It is now the leading European network and educational institute for the digital and tech community. Currently, they have a network that spans 17 campuses in 8 countries. The campuses are a base for ideas and collaborations to thrive, hosting a community of startups, agencies, corporate labs and many more.


Trending Topics is the fastest growing innovation portal in Austria. They report comprehensively, quickly and qualitatively on startups, mobility, blockchain and all other topics that are important for the innovation landscape.



about our hosts and speakers


Picture of Mahdis Gharaei

Mahdis Gharaei is a Co-Founder and Co-CEO at the female factor, a global career and leadership community on a mission to close the gendered leadership gap.



Picture of Petra Hauser

Petra Hauser is the Austrian Country Manager for Talent Garden and CEO and Founder of the Exponential Business Hub.



Picture of Jakob Steinschaden

Jakob Steinschaden is the Co-Founder and CEO at Trending Topics, an online news outlet that focuses on start-ups, crypto and AI.



Picture of Lucija Veličan Marković

Lucija Veličan Marković is the VP of Business Process Outsourcing and Advisory Services at Talentarium and

Hacking HR Partner in the Vienna Chapter.



Picture of Thomas Kohler

Thomas Kohler is a Senior Talent Acquisition Partner at Tier Mobility and expert in recruiting for hyper growth companies.




Picture of Laura Ecker-Sperlich

Laura Ecker-Sperlich is the Manager of Corporate Communications at Philip Morris International, one of the world’s largest cigarette and tobacco companies.



Picture of Sophie Soulane

Sophie Soulane is the Head of Sales at Equalture, a company that aims to make hiring objective and unbiased through gamification.



Picture of Steffen Rother

Steffen Rother is the Teamlead of Recruiting and Talent Acquisition at EY Austria, one of the leading audit and advisory organisations.



Picture of Ike Okosa

Ike Okosa is the Co-Founder and CEO of eWorker, a hiring platform that connects companies to Black tech talent.




Picture of Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf

Isabelle Bichler-Eliasaf is the Co-Founder and COO at retrain.ai, a talent management platform that uses AI to assess employee knowledge and predict jobs of the future.


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