HR trends 2025 in IT: how the rules of the game are changing in the search for talent

In 2025, HR in the IT sector will face new challenges, which is due to both the ongoing development of technologies and the transformation of this highly competitive segment of the job market. Recruitment and personnel management are already based on a balance between a personalized approach and the use of process automation tools. Umbrella IT CTO Konstantin Popandopoulos spoke about the main trends that shape HR strategies in IT and determine the path the industry will take in the coming years.

What's New for HR in IT in 2025

Compared to recent years, the focus this year is shifting from mass hiring and basic requirements to creating individual offers that take into account candidates’ career and personal goals. Other trends include:

The Growing Importance of Soft Skills

The widespread automation of work processes and the use of artificial intelligence make it possible to avoid wasting time on most routine tasks, and recruiters are beginning to pay more attention to “software”. The role of such qualities of candidates as emotional intelligence, creativity and adaptability is increasing. Companies will have to use a more complex system for assessing these skills and implement new methods of interviewing and testing.

Demographic challenge

The shortage of qualified personnel that has developed over the past couple of years is contributing to more active competition for specialists, especially young ones, on the labor market. In order for job seekers to choose a company, it will need to offer not only attractive working conditions, but also opportunities for professional growth, training, and employee development.

Technological requirements

Rapid technological advances motivate employers to seek candidates with highly specialized technical knowledge. The problem here can be the gap between market demands and available skills of job seekers, especially in the high-tech sector.

What Recruiting Strategies Are Relevant in 2025

Whether or not a particular recruitment strategy will be successful today depends on a company's ability to be flexible, technologically advanced, and sincere in its approach to interacting with candidates. In 2025, the leaders will be those employers who do not just look for employees, but create an environment in which people want to work. And there are many strategies that are gaining popularity:

• AI-powered recruitment. Big data analysis and artificial intelligence allow us to pinpoint candidates with the necessary skills, predict their career needs, and build personalized offers.
• Investing in training and reskilling. Many companies will begin to develop reskilling and upskilling programs to attract talent from related fields or help existing employees adapt to new requirements.
• Cooperation with educational institutions. Direct interaction with universities and colleges will ensure a flow of young specialists ready for specific company tasks.
• Flexible offers. Standardization of offers will be a thing of the past: the best companies will offer candidates a choice of several working conditions (remote, hybrid or in-office) and benefit packages (health insurance or training, sports, etc.).
• Increased hiring speed. In a competitive market, hiring success often depends on the speed of decision making. Employers will begin to reduce the number of selection stages and automate communication processes.
• Career development. Companies should ensure transparency of career development, giving employees a clear understanding of possible development directions and career opportunities within the organization.

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Employer branding to attract and retain talent

An employer brand is a combination of marketing, HR, and compensation and benefits (C&B) indicators. Therefore, the development of the Employer Branding direction should be approached comprehensively, paying attention to both the external brand (what the external market of job seekers knows about the company and sees) and the internal employer brand among current employees.

What is important to consider when building an employer brand:

• Transparency of the company's mission, business goals and strategy to employees. The more talented the employee, and the more contribution we expect from him, the more important is the transparency of the company's actions in the person of management. Transparency gives not only a sense of trust and understanding, but also involves employees on the ground, allowing personal goals and company goals to work in synergy.
• Working with reviews. We are used to choosing things and service providers through marketplaces and aggregators, relying on the opinions of other people. In the matter of attracting specialists, working with reviews gives approximately the same effect, becoming a necessary component for forming an employer brand. Reviews can be published on external resources, but it is also valuable to collect them in internal surveys. Do not be afraid of reviews, conduct a dialogue and show a keen interest in such activity as an employer. You will not only show openness, but will also be able to stand out from competitors in your field.
• Working with the company's core brand. It is hard to imagine that job seekers in the market will know a company more as an employer than as a product/service provider. The last ten years have shown that allocating budget and other resources to developing an employer brand has a positive effect on companies in the long and medium term. However, by getting too carried away with this trend, unfortunately, some companies miss the importance of overall brand awareness, which significantly reduces the effectiveness of HR activities. Therefore, "play as a team", let your marketing and HR departments work in tandem.

Competencies Most in Demand on the Labor Market in 2025

In 2025, the main requirements for applicants will remain the same and will include both hard and soft skills. At the same time, the emphasis shifts as follows:

AI Literacy

As artificial intelligence has become widely used in a variety of fields, the need for specialists who can effectively work with such tools has also increased for a variety of purposes. In the IT industry, this is manifested, for example, in the fact that classic data scientists, professionally engaged in science, are beginning to give way in the labor market to basic programmers with a good understanding of the essence of AI technologies and the ability to apply them. The latter will be in greater demand on a mass scale.

Adaptability

The willingness to be flexible, to change direction following trends, to quickly study and implement relevant solutions is in demand in the labor market today more than ever. This trend emerged several years ago as a response to rapidly and radically changing conditions, and will most likely remain relevant for a long time.

Developed communication skills

Professional competencies will certainly continue to be highly valued in the market, but the role of soft skills also continues to grow. This is very clearly visible, for example, in the direction of IT outstaffing: large companies are increasingly creating their own IT departments, and when hiring an outstaffer, an important criterion is his ability to find a common language with an existing team. The effectiveness of the entire team can easily depend on the level of an employee's communication skills today.

Critical Thinking

The ability to think critically will likely remain a requirement for most job openings for many years to come, regardless of the industry or position. The ability to analyze, draw conclusions, and adjust your actions based on them remains an indicator of an employee’s responsibility and effectiveness.

As you can see, there are enough challenges expected in the coming year both for the IT sphere in general and specifically for the HR direction. But in the current circumstances, optimism is inspired by the fact that in recent years many companies have learned to quickly adapt to various kinds of changes, becoming truly flexible. In this vein, any transformations are perceived not as a set of problems, but rather as an opportunity to take a stronger position in the market.