2025 Recruitment Trends Your Business Should Be Aware Of And Why

2024 has been a difficult year for the IT recruitment and hiring industry. Despite hopes rising at the start of the year when we came out of recession, ‘hesitancy’ and ‘delays’ are the two main words I would use to describe the mood this year. Concerns around the election, its effect on the economy, and Employment Law changes all decreased confidence in 2024.

However, now that the dust has settled, things are starting to look up with predictions suggesting growth in the economy over the next few years. The 2025 recruitment trends I have chosen to explore in this article are a realistic reflection of what many of our clients have expressed to us and what I have seen in the recent market.

2025 recruitment trends to be aware of

Fixed term contracts will increase

Fixed term permanent contracts used to be rare in the market, particularly for IT professionals. However, fixed term contracts have been sharply increasing in 2024 and we expect this upward trajectory to continue in 2025. Therefore, it’s my number one 2025 recruitment trend!

A fixed term permanent contract is a permanent employee who is employed for a defined time period (usually 6-18 months), with the same employee rights as other permanent employees. Some professionals will have their contracts renewed for another period, some won’t. This works differently compared with a contractor who often provide their services via their own limited company, rather than working as an employee.

We’re currently working in a hirer’s market – meaning businesses have more power than professionals. The increasing number of fixed term contracts being offered is a very clear reference to this. This is because fixed term contracts allow organisations to have greater flexibility about whether to renew a permanent employee’s contract or not beyond the agreed period. Additionally, with fixed term workers, employers pay a permanent salary, instead of a contractor day rate – which would normally be a significantly higher cost.

With far from ideal economic conditions, coupled with new Employment Law regulations promising “day 1” rights, hiring a permanent team member is become more risky, so some organisations do not want to commit to permanent team members for the long-term, and fixed term permanent contracts provide an alternative option.

Return to the office

Workers returning to the office is a recruitment trend I expect will dominate conversations throughout 2025.

In 2024, we have seen some organisations implement more structured hybrid and full-time office policies. A number of companies feared backlash both publicly and internally after previously committing to more flexible working opportunities for some or all employees during or immediately after the pandemic. However, this steady trend back to the office hasn’t proved as disastrous as some thought.

Whilst the tech sector has always been ahead of the curve in terms of offering working from home flexibility, tech professionals will still see a reduction in remote working opportunities across the market. In our conversations with business leaders, pushing a hybrid / full return to the office policy hasn’t caused a massive fluctuation in their headcount and retention, with only a small percentage of exiting employees attributing their move to such policies. Therefore, this will likely encourage other organisations to follow suit in 2025.

Skills-based hiring

Skills-based hiring has been on the rise in tech recruitment and will be a 2025 recruitment trend that we will see continue to grow in popularity in the coming years.

This method involves a candidate being assessed based on their skills and competencies, rather than based on their relevant work experience and education. This recruitment method can help to increase the talent pool and improve diversity, as restrictions on having particular qualifications or a certain level of experience are no longer required.

By assessing candidates purely on skills, skill-based hiring can reduce chances of bad hires and speed up the recruitment process. It does not work for all jobs and sectors, but for tech roles, it can be particularly useful and should have a positive impact on hiring within the sector as it becomes more widely used.

Niche specialist talent will do well

Niche and specialist professionals tend to be in demand regardless of economic conditions, as there are fewer professionals who offer similar skillsets and experience.

Whilst IT hiring has been slow; many organisations cannot delay key IT projects any longer. Specialists will find themselves most in demand during the next year, as the economy begins to bounce back and starts to show growth. For businesses that need this talent, they should prepare themselves by creating an attractive EVP, ensuring their compensation is competitive and using a specialist recruitment agency to secure the talent they need.

Cyber security will become more vital

Cyber threats are becoming increasingly common and harder to combat. New technologies, such as artificial intelligence, are making it trickier for individuals to spot malicious content and phishing attempts.

Previously, a cyber criminal could contact someone pretending to be their bank, and many would know what checks to go through to not fall for this phishing attempt. However, nowadays, cyber criminals are using AI and other tech to create realistic deep fakes to trick individuals.

Earlier this year, a company in the US reported that they had been subject to a phishing attack, with the cyber criminals using a deep fake voice note of their CEO created from YouTube videos of him.

With many organisations placing all of their data and networks online, there is a greater risk of worse consequences with cyber attacks. Thus, cyber security skills will likely be more sought after by organisations in 2025, with the aim to create increased protection for their business and workforce.

A boom in green tech

Sustainability and the renewable sector have seen fast developments in the past few years. Therefore, green tech is a major area that will see growth in 2025, as the pressure for organisations to act in more sustainable ways becomes more acute from both the government and end customers.

Green tech will create vast opportunities and jobs in the sector. For example, hardware engineers who have been facing a reduction in job opportunities as the world moves on to software, will find new work aligned with the increase in electric car chargers. The government recently announced investments of £200m into electric vehicle charging infrastructure in 2025/6. Along with other planned renewable projects, this will create more opportunities for tech professionals within the green tech sector.

VIQU is an award-winning IT recruitment agency. For tailored and specialist assistance in hiring great IT professionals in 2025, please get in touch with our team here.