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New year, new team: 5 ways to hire with purpose in 2025

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Freya Lucas

Jan 08, 2025

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With the advent of AI and with a persistent workforce crisis in some parts of the early childhood education and care (ECEC) sector, HR professionals, recruiters and service leaders in the sector need to be equipped with up to date knowledge and strategies to ensure they build solid and sustainable talent pools in the new year.

In the piece below we explore five ways that these professionals can ‘hire with purpose’ in 2025 and beyond, based on recent research conducted by organisational consultants Korn Ferry.

AI is not a quick fix

For many the integration of AI has proven to not be the ‘quick fix’ many were hoping for. Key elements of the hiring process, such as identifying talent gaps, and recognising potential ‘beyond the resume’ are still out of scope for many of the tools presently available.

A number of the talent specialists surveyed for the research noted that relying too heavily on AI in recruitment made the process impersonal, and caused them to miss out on high quality candidates.

Moving forward experts recommend a ‘hybrid’ approach to hiring, with human insight working alongside AI to make the most impact. Employers should ensure that their people are trained and given ‘guardrails’ to ensure their use of AI is consistent with the desired outcomes, and should emphasise to their teams the importance of aligning tech integration with the organisation’s overall business and talent acquisition goals.

Professional development matters

Nearly 70 per cent of the employees surveyed by Korn Ferry indicated that they would stay with an organisation if they were offered upskilling and advancement opportunities—even if they hated their job. A lack of career growth was stated as the second-biggest reason employees said they would leave their role.

Given that employees are increasingly considering professional development opportunities as a core aspect of evaluating their choice of place to work, organisations should prioritise talent development initiatives, and look to upskill their team to meet identified skill gaps.

Sometimes termed secession planning or ‘growing from within, offering customised training which is tailored not only to the needs and interests of individual employees but also to the needs of the organisation.

Aligning the employee value proposition (EVP) to company culture

Prospective employees increasingly have access and insights into what working in a particular organisation is like thanks to social media and other methodologies.

Alongside this employees are increasingly willing to walk away from roles or organisations which are not a good fit for them.

Therefore strong company culture is increasingly important, as is having employers who are consistent in their behaviours, and who deliver on their promises.

Almost half of the HR professionals involved in the research (45 per cent) indicated that integrating cultural values will be key to successful hiring strategies for 2025.

Critical to this is creating an authentic employee value proposition (EVP) which integrates core company values. Leaders, then, need to weave these values into messaging throughout the hiring process.

Focus on critical skills

Skills based hiring has become a key talent acquisition strategy, and employers are not able to clearly define what “critical skills” mean to their organisation and potential job candidates.

To bridge this gap, Korn Ferry says, organisations should evaluate which roles drive growth and transformation and then determine which skills are necessary for those roles.

Additionally, hiring managers must receive sufficient education around skills-based hiring and should further develop a skills-based employee value proposition. Organisations will also need to better integrate talent management and talent acquisition in 2025, which will allow for better collaboration to fill talent gaps.

Flexibility is key

The hybrid working environment is here to stay, and while the ‘work from home’ model is not possible for some people in the ECEC sector, it’s important for employers to consider that ‘hybrid’ also refers to employers being flexible in terms of the structure of their roles.

Open schedules which allow employees to pick their children up from school, take half day leave periods, or to leave the service for an hour and then come back all support a work-life balance.

HR professionals should focus on a flexible working culture, researchers argue, offering the following reflective questions to support:

How sustainable is our current working model, and have we limited future opportunities by being rigid in our approach?

Which collaboration and communication tools do we need to manage and support remote and hybrid employees?

How do we keep people engaged and connected, even when they are not in the same room?

This piece is based on the work of Jeanne MacDonald, CEO of Recruitment Process Outsourcing for Korn Ferry. Please see here for the original.

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