28 Talent Market Leaders Reveal Their Top Focuses For 2024 – Be Inspired For The Year Ahead
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From building out talent brands, improving inclusive hiring, and nurturing talent communities it looks like a busy year ahead for our talent marketing community.
If you are looking for inspiration to plan your strategy for 2024 or just want to know what other leaders are doing we've got you covered.
A big thank you to all the leaders around the world who answered "what is your top focus for 2024?" and for adding to such a wonderfully rich collective vision for 2024 for our industry.
Here are the top 28 replies:
Talent Leader #1: Ankita's 2024 focus:
“As a marketer and a storyteller, I want to craft stories that bring out the human side of everything we do and advance inclusion.
I want to use technology and data to enrich and evolve the way we share these stories with our audience.”
Connect with Ankita on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #2: Dimitris's 2024 focus:
“As an Employer Branding team of one of the most dynamic Retailers, our focus point would be to work even more as an amplifier of all HR efforts, both internally and externally, achieving the goal of being the N1 Employer of Choice for #teamLidl and potential candidates.”
Connect with Dimitris on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #3: Irina's 2024 focus:
“For many of us 2023 was a year of big transformations and changes but one thing remains unchanged from my perspective: nothing is more important than talent.
In my opinion, to navigate successfully in 2024 it’s important for employer branders to choose between adjusting the system or adjusting to the system and probably to shift our attention to shorter term tactics without going off course.
My focus is definitely to continue bringing value to the business by inspiring the employer brand philosophy to my colleagues, by being a change catalyst between several teams involved in employer branding and by collecting as many employee stories as possible to bring my company to life.
2024 will be also a year to digest AI and to decide on how exactly we use it in a responsible way.”
Connect with Irina on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #4: Emily's 2024 focus:
“Next year, our Talent Brand team will be focusing on deepening the understanding in market of what it means to work at Canva and ensuring that our value proposition is clearly represented at every stage of the candidate life cycle.
We’ll be sharing stories about the interesting and complex challenges 'Canvanauts' get to work on and all the other things that makes life at Canva so special.
We’ll also be continuing to grow and nurture our talent community across multiple markets globally, to drive impactful results for Canva across Talent Attraction and Candidate Experience.”
Connect with Emily on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #5: Lukas' 2024 focus:
“Building a positive employer brand will remain essential in the coming year.
We want to attract and retain the best talent on the market to maintain a competitive advantage, which is necessary to succeed as a business.
The best way to achieve this is to strengthen the voice of our employees through employee advocacy, as their networks include future and current colleagues who are planning their next career move.
Employer branding must ensure that this happens in our company.”
Connect with Lukas on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #6: Hayley's 2024 focus:
"We’re excited for our enhanced job search experience that will ensure a great experience for both our people and our candidates to find what’s next in their careers at Colliers."
Connect with Hayley on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #7: Kim's 2024 focus:
"I’m looking forward to the initiatives my team and I have planned for 2024. We just finalized our roadmap, and our primary focus will be on key initiatives falling under the talent attraction umbrella.
We’re intentional about increasing diversity representation within the hiring process and are deploying a number of strategies that involve strategic partnerships. We’ve joined forces with organizations dedicated to diversity and inclusion, such as PowerToFly and Elpha.
These collaborations introduce us to exceptional talent from diverse backgrounds and skill sets. To amplify this engagement, we'll be hosting events and sharing the experiences and stories of our teammates through blogs and videos.
We’ll also be focused on curating fresh content that delves deeper into our company culture. While Zapier effectively communicates what joining our company entails through various channels, we're taking it a step further.
Our goal is to develop content that provides a more nuanced understanding, helping prospective candidates determine if Zapier is the ideal environment for them. This includes insights into our asynchronous communication practices, our approach to feedback, and more. We look forward to painting a comprehensive picture of the Zapier experience for potential candidates!"
Talent Leader #8: Tim's 2024 focus:
“Our focus for the upcoming year is to implement cost-effective employer branding strategies, including building a cohort of brand ambassadors, thought leaders, and employee advocates.
These will also support our refreshed EVP, which is due to launch in mid-2024.”
Talent Leader #9: Rian's 2024 focus:
“Next year I want to align my life and work more with my personal values. Not sure what exactly this looks like yet but likely more time and energy spent in the bakery my partner and I started bringing to life last year here in Poughkeepsie, NY, and doing volunteer work (signed up for the Trevor Project, hopefully I can do that next year).
Beyond work, I want to deepen my meditation and spiritual practice - working on remembering why we're all here (in the big picture sense).
Plus to continue to use my voice, literally and figuratively. I am taking singing lessons right now, which is something I've never quite felt comfortable with (though I love playing music). I don't have a lot of confidence using my voice in any sense of the word so it's been an interesting (aka challenging, exciting, revelatory) experience and journey so far. I am hoping that working on this helps me to use my voice in a more helpful and productive way in the figurative sense as well.
I realize more and more that our sense of connection to ourselves, each other, and something bigger than us is the one thing that can't be taken away by technological advancements. So, in short, I think this is the area to most focus on next year for me.”
Talent Leader #10: Matt's 2024 focus:
“At Appcast’s Brand and Creative, we’re focused on helping job seekers (and employees) make better career and job decisions through our framework, Employment Value Experience. We call it EVX — an innovative way of thinking about value, and job seekers, employees, and employers all have different ‘scorecards’ of what is valuable to them.
Considering how many challenges we see around people feeling like they don’t have great jobs (even if they like their employer), TA leaders consistently report they struggle with strong-fit applicants, turnover issues, engagement declines, etc. Something is not working as hoped.
The challenge we see in our work and research is that job seekers, employees, and employers evaluate value differently and at different points in their lives and careers, which is constantly evolving. It makes the concept of a value proposition unhelpful unless it’s developed for every type of job seeker and employee, tailored to the life and Career stage. Doing that transforms EVP into something not “EVP.” That is what inspired us. EVX does what EVP and EB are supposed to do.
By putting aside old pre-pandemic thinking that an EVP is a solution, we shifted our attention to real-world problem-solving, which led us to think of value in terms of career path profiles. Study after study shows we all generally want the same things from Employment (i.e., comp, benefits, good cultures, growth, etc.) until we get to career paths where one path can be entirely different from another and take many turns over a career.
Conventional thinking about EVP produces something akin to an advertising slogan, which doesn’t help people make better career decisions. If people make smart, well-informed career decisions, employers get stronger-fit applicants and need for fewer applications. This approach, in turn, improves ROI in nearly every aspect of recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and engagement/retention.
The short version is we must stop telling people what we think they want to hear and tell them what they need to know, and that opens all new forms of message and creative strategies. It’s very sophisticated but also cool stuff.”
Talent Leader #11: Belinda's 2024 focus:
“My focus for 2024 will be rolling out our new EVP and embedding it in all our comms, as well as continuing to work to reduce barriers to employment for marginalised candidates through the recruitment process.”
Connect with Belinda on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #12: Rares' 2024 focus:
“In 2024, we will work to bring our newly developed EVP to life and showcase what #LifeAtABBYY looks like in an attractive, accurate, and authentic way.
By doing this, we are confident we will stand out as an employer of choice in the Tech and Artificial Intelligence verticals within our key markets, attracting and welcoming the best talent to join our global team.”
Connect with Rares on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #13: Aneta's 2024 focus:
“At StoneX, we are in the concluding phases of crafting our compelling Employer Value Proposition.
Our primary focus for 2024 will be to effectively communicate it among our employees, ensuring resonance with our organizational mission, vision, and values.
Additionally, we aspire to enhance our emphasis on employee advocacy programs, encouraging and celebrating the creation of employee-generated content, including testimonials and social media posts that capture their experiences.
Lastly, we will delve into comprehensive data analytics of our Employer Branding initiatives to precisely measure their effectiveness. It’s going to be a very busy year!”
Connect with Aneta on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #14: Nikos' 2024 focus:
“Our main priority in Kariera Group, as an organization that had recently expanded to 10 other countries in Europe and Asia, is to establish a communication model in all of our processes with our employees.
A clear direction of how we operate and where we stand right now in terms of engagement, culture sensitivity, and share the core values that lead our organization.”
Connect with Nikos on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #15: Evelyne's 2024 focus:
“We will focus further on improving our global standards across the Employee Lifecycle, especially our Onboarding and Offboarding processes.
We want to make sure that all these steps along the way align with our culture.
We will continue improving our Careers website as the first touch point for potential candidates – representing and communicating our global Employer Brand.”
Connect with Evelyne on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #16: Jess' 2024 focus:
“2023 was a challenging year for our employer brand. We had to adapt and stretch in ways that we didn't see coming, but we've made great strides and found our footing again. In 2024, we're focused on using that foundation to help us reach new heights. Our primary focuses for the upcoming year are:
Continuing Brand Recovery: We recognize we still have a lot of work to do to repair and fortify our employer brand. We'll focus on strategies and tactics that help us solidify our position as an employer of choice.
Energizing Our EVP: Internally and externally, we want to keep the momentum of our refreshed Employee Value Proposition. To do this, we're taking a multi-faceted approach, including leader enablement, employee storytelling, company-wide communications, and more.
Honing in on Employee Advocacy: We're putting a lot of effort behind employee advocacy and social storytelling in the new year. We want to bring the team members who champion working here - and the work they do - to the forefront.
These three initiatives work hand in hand and will hopefully contribute to a successful 2024. Lots of work ahead of us, but excited to get things rolling!”
Talent Leader #17: Jason's 2024 focus:
"In 2024, my team and I will continue our path of continuous improvement, evolving our services and making our deliverables more human and authentic than ever before.
By leveraging AI and research on 1.7 million candidates, we'll be enhancing productivity, optimize processes, and unleashing creativity, while prioritizing a people-centric approach to employer branding.
I will continue providing talent acquisition leaders with the latest candidate preference research, thought leadership, and employer branding best practices, all aimed at giving our clients a competitive edge as world-class employers.
Let's embark on this mission together and create a future where organizations stand out and attract top talent."
Connect with Jason on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #18: James' 2024 focus:
"My focus for 2024 is leading with a human-centered focus and helping to keep the bigger intention and vision top-of-mind to move projects and people forward."
Connect with James on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #19: Vicki's 2024 focus:
“My focus will be helping organisations unlock the power of their Employee Value Proposition.
EVP is an afterthought in many organisations so I am on a mission to change that by supporting organisations to create and activate their own EVP in-house.
I will build a bespoke approach for each organisation depending on their culture, goals and in-house EVP capability, so that they can reap the huge benefits for their organisation and their people.”
Connect with Vicki on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #20: Michael's 2024 focus:
“My focus for 2024 is elevating employer branding and recruitment marketing through AI innovations.
Another focal point is sharing insights that empower the employer branding community through blogs, speaking engagements, and webinars.
Additionally, I plan to establish networking events that serve as collaborative platforms for Talent Acquisition and Employer Branding professionals.
These events aim to foster connections and facilitate shared learning while promoting businesses, products, and services for employer branding professionals.”
Connect with Michael on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #21: Marco's 2024 focus:
“Next year, I recommend asking yourself - what does our company really makes unique and spark up an iconic flame? What is it that it makes your company different than the one next door?
To truly differentiate your employer brand not only for today but also for your future needs, I suggest digging deeper into your company culture and employer value proposition (EVP) pillars in 2024.
Look for those proof points that truly represent your company and bring those pillars to life in a way that is authentic, creative and unique.
You can go big or small, but make sure it is real. How? The 'Hero, Hub, Hygiene' model always helps me for example. And to me, 'Hero' embodies the concept of something iconic or unique.
So my focus for 2024 is to create more iconic work that really touches people!”
Connect with Marco on LinkedIn
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Talent Leader #22: Mahin's 2024 focus:
“As an employer branding specialist, my focus for the upcoming year would be to create a strong and compelling employer brand that attracts top talent and fosters employee engagement and loyalty.
Here are some key areas I would prioritize:
Employer Value Proposition (EVP): I would work on developing and refining the EVP, which is the unique set of benefits and values that differentiate an organization as an employer of choice. This involves understanding the needs and aspirations of the target talent pool and aligning the EVP with the company's mission, culture,
Candidate Experience Optimization: Focus on creating a positive and seamless candidate experience throughout the recruitment process. Ensure that your application process is user-friendly, communicate transparently with candidates, and provide timely feedback. Continuously evaluate and improve the candidate journey based on feedback and data.”
Connect with Mahin on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #23: Craig's 2024 focus:
“As we look ahead to 2024, one of our primary focuses centers around continuing to actively listen to and understand the evolving aspirations and values of talent – both internally and externally.
We'll strategically lean into inbound marketing strategies as we believe connecting with talent is not just about reaching out, but also attracting them organically via compelling narratives that align closely with what they value most.”
Connect with Craig on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #24: Kate's 2024 focus:
"In 2024, I'll be focusing on being a champion for quality in the employer brand industry, inspiring closer collaboration between Marketing and HR, talking with co-workers and peers on how to get better employer brand measurement, and empowering more businesses to define and express their employer brand strengths. Bring it on!"
Talent Leader #25: Ali's 2024 focus:
“My focus is on communicating with EVPs of the company to raise the awareness of employees and potential candidates in the upcoming job fair in Iran and also optimize touch-points of employee journey (EB side) and make partnership agreements with universities to engage fresh graduates.”
Talent Leader #26: Iuliia's 2024 focus:
“In 2024, our primary objective is to enhance global consistency in Employer Branding across our locations.
We will continue establishing and supporting our local Employer Branding teams, offering them a comprehensive framework, knowledge, and materials to activate Employer Branding activities locally.”
Connect with Iuliia on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #27: Tonya's 2024 focus:
“My focus next year is launching the Mental Health Mom's Foundation, a resource and support services company for mental health caregivers.”
Connect with Tonya on LinkedIn
Talent Leader #28: Evgeniia's 2024 focus:
“In 2024, my focus is on fostering a culture of innovation and continuous learning within our team, driving both individual and collective success.”
