When I read that Netflix might reduce its generous unlimited parental leave benefit, I thought, “Well, that was a good run for those who’ve had it”. Culturally, it was a great way to encourage new parents to take the time needed for their children and families, with the average time off being around six months.
According to the recent Wall Street Journal article linked above, the policy aligned with a core company value of “freedom” and “responsibility”, the idea that employees can be trusted to set boundaries. However, more staffers than expected took full advantage of the benefits, and Netflix ultimately found them unsustainable.
There’s a difference between offering benefits like this to a few hundred employees versus the over 14,000 today, mainly when more than expected used the benefit. When my previous team was only four people, I offered unlimited vacation and time off when needed, but that was manageable compared to hundreds or thousands of employees.
The business reality was that it was unsustainable. The question is: Will changing this benefit affect recruiting and retention? Most likely, yes, but how much so remains to be seen. This, along with many companies return-to-work policies cutting out remote work, fewer positions open, and other benefit reductions, has contributed to candidate frustration, especially for those salaried professionals who have struggled to find work this past year where it’s taking much longer overall. Employee engagement was at an 11-year low earlier this year according to Gallup, although it did improve slightly since.
After the dismal October jobs report due to the strike at Boeing and the impact of Hurricanes Milton and Helene, a positive sign for employment was that the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported 227,000 added in November, while unemployment ticked up slightly to 4.2% (a year ago unemployment was at 3.7%). This job growth was mainly in healthcare, leisure and hospitality, government, and social assistance, but the retail trade lost jobs.
Starting in 2025, we will conduct CandE Pulse quarterly to gather more data between updates. This final 2024 CandE Pulse update covers November through mid-December and is based on over 150 responses. Over 40% of the companies have 2,500-100K+ employees in Healthcare, Manufacturing, Finance and insurance, Government (public sector), Construction, Consumer Goods, and many others.
Respondents told us that hiring has increased this time, while those who said they’ve been hired, laid off, or redeployed have decreased collectively compared to the past few months (see figure below). Hiring is up to 90% again, similar to the first six months of 2024. Some of the increase could be due to seasonal holiday hiring in Consumer Goods, but it’s still a good sign. Whether or not it’s an increase remains to be seen as we head into 2025 and a new U.S. administration.
CandE Pulse Hiring Status
The size of the recruiting team also made a big leap this time, increasing 46% since October. This change also changed the trajectory of the trendline to slightly growing rather than decreasing (see the figure below). We hope this is a trend in investing in recruiting again going into 2025, but we’ll wait and see what happens in Q1.
Recruiting Team Size
When we look at the trendline with the overall recruiting budget, the trajectory has continued downward since January. Still, those who said their budgets increased since October jumped an incredible 194% (see below). This could also be the end-of-year use-it-or-lose-it 2024 budget. Again, we’ll wait and see if this trend continues for Q1 and beyond.
Recruiting Budget
What were the latest recruiting priorities? This is something we’ve asked our CandE Community and beyond with our CandE Pulse surveys since January 2023. Screening and interviewing – a pivotal stage in recruiting and candidate experience – is again at #1 (see table below).
This is again most likely due to an increase in unqualified candidates applying, putting even more pressure on recruiters to vet candidates for hiring managers to interview. At this stage, there is an investment from candidates, recruiters, and hiring managers alike—a greater level of human interaction that can make or break hiring decisions and the overall candidate experience.
Recruiting events occur at #2, followed by pre-boarding and onboarding at #3 (the most critical stage after interviewing). Candidate experience comes in at #4 this time and is the only top-five priority this year, along with screening and interviewing. Lastly, at #5 are referrals, which employers depend on, and that candidate experience can impact positively and negatively.
As always, this is only a partial list of what we ask, and priorities can and do change. Granted, a distinct mix of employers respond to these surveys monthly, but it is still a sample set of current priorities.
Top 5 Recruiting and Hiring Priorities
In addition to asking what employees’ ties are month after month, we also ask them how they will get all their work priorities done. Out of the top five each month, the most regularly recurring one is usually “Improving Processes” (over”50% this time), back at #1. Current staffing is at #2 this time, and new technologies are at #3 (suitable for the vendors this time of year). The candidate and employee survey is back in the top five at #4, and more staffing, which aligns with the recruiting team increase above, is at #5. More staffing was also in the top five in the past three months.
As we do each year in our benchmark research and now monthly in our CandE Pulse surveys, we again highlight how employers self-rate their recruiting and candidate experience and whether they are leading, competing, improving, or lagging. Will the usually most significant segment of responses, those who said they were competing or improving, continue to decrease?
The trend lines continue to be precise—since January, “competing” has “increased,” although it jumped up again from October (see the figure below). There could be a bullish feeling in the end-of-year market, and we hope that continues into 2025.
Competing and improving are always the two most significant segments in this indicator, but improving dropped dramatically in November-December. Lagging also decreased while leading increased significantly.
These are self-reported and subjective ratings, and the employer mix differs each month. However, we prefer that employer confidence in competing, improving, and leading remain stable or increase. Of course, there is volatility and business impacts; the proof is always in the candidate experience ratings.
Self-Rating Recruiting and Candidate Experience
Lastly, with all these market changes, artificial intelligence continues to be the buzz in recruiting and hiring. Back in August, we changed one of the questions we ask each month to: Are recruiting technologies with artificial intelligence (AI) helping you to optimize and improve your recruiting and hiring efforts (for example, sourcing, screening, candidate communications, interview scheduling, etc.)?
- 54% said yes in November-December (up 93% from October)
- 13% said no (down 50% from October)
- Only 6% said not sure (down 74% from October)
- 15% said they’re they’re not utilizing any AI recruiting technologies (similar to October)
- And 11% said they plan to purchase AI recruiting technologies in the future (slightly higher than in October)
More companies are leveraging AI recruiting technologies, and it’s only the beginning. Still, in our 2024 Benchmark Research, less than 20% of employers globally have implemented recruiting technologies with AI capabilities, but we’ve already begun this race to optimize recruiting and hiring with AI.
Sustaining the unsustainable may feel like a fool’s errand in the long run, particularly in the case of thinned staffing and resources. But whether it’s offering generous employee benefits like Netflix leave that improves retention or investing in the capabilities and technologies that elevate and maintain a quality candidate experience, the long run should be where the most significant human investments are made.
We’ll launch our new quarterly CandE Pulse survey in January, so in the meantime, Happy Holidays to you all!