Around a week ago, the latest hot topic in the employment sector went viral on TikTok. ‘Quiet quitting’ is all the rage on the video-led social media channel as burned-out workers begin to tacitly disengage from their working environment.

It’s a topic that is now featuring large in the thinking of HR managers and teams, and it’s a problem that may become worse as the cost of living crisis really starts to bite, and workers question the real value that is to be gained from investing more time in an employer than they are financially or emotionally rewarded for.

How businesses hire new talent has changed a lot over the last two years – initially as a result of necessity, but more recently also in an effort to tackle what is perceived to be a crisis in the number of suitably qualified candidates on the market.

There’s now a general feeling within the recruitment sector that the future that awaits businesses that are resistant to the need to be more agile, less conventional, and more tech-savvy in how they hire is one of stagnating talent and growth.

Looking at the recruitment market today, there appears to be three key trends that HR directors and their business leaders need to get their heads around:

If we have learned anything over the last two years it’s surely that the corporate world has become considerably more disruptive than has ever been the case before.

That’s not just about the ways in which responses to the pandemic have reshaped the workplace and altered conventional attitudes around what it means to be ‘at’ work; it’s also about how the talent market has materially altered, and what businesses now need to do to remain relevant not only to their customers, but also to their internal markets.

It doesn’t take Einstein to work out that the global economy is in a mess right now. The pandemic and lockdown, Brexit, the war in Ukraine, and oil and gas shortages have all had a part to play, and local factors make their own contribution close to wherever home might be for you.

Many analysts now suggest there is a near 50% chance of a global recession happening within the next year as the world’s most developed economies slow to somewhere around the 1% mark – a stark comedown from the 5% or thereabouts seen in 2021.

With recession comes the increasing threat of business closures or restructuring and the inevitable layoffs that come with them.

One question I get asked a lot is whether leaders also need to be good managers in order for a business to succeed.

The answer is that whilst every leader needs some degree of management skill and every manager needs to have some degree of leadership skill, the two roles are different – and both are needed in order to achieve success.

In fact, it’s very rare for good leaders to also be good managers, and vice versa. I meet a lot of people who mistakenly believe they have to be able to fulfil both roles to be effective in their role, whereas it’s often more effective to excel in one and ensure there are people in your business who excel at the other.