The Top 4 Contingent Recruitment Trends of 2024

What Trends Are Shaping Contingent Recruitment in 2024 (and How Curately.ai Helps You Keep Up)

Temporary. Contingent. Flexible. Impermanence is a core part of of the contract recruitment space, not only in its very nature of revolving around temporary work and demand fluctuations, but also in how rapidly trends and best practices in the industry can change and evolve. From the gig economy to tech-driven hiring, companies are finding new ways to bring in contract talent. But the rules of the game are shifting. As recruitment tech gets more advanced and workers' expectations continue to rise, recruiters must adapt to stay competitive.

As we near the end of 2024, finding candidates isn’t enough to make a recruitment process successful – your recruitment strategy needs to leverage the right tools to keep up with these changes. Let’s break down the top trends driving contingent recruitment and how Curately.ai’s platform helps you stay ahead of the curve.

Talent Wants Flexibility—It’s No Longer Optional

In today’s contract market, flexibility is non-negotiable. Candidates want remote opportunities, adaptable work schedules, and freedom to choose how they complete their tasks. They’re less interested in rigid structures and more focused on work-life balance.

Curately.ai supports recruiters by making it easier to connect with flexible and remote talent. The platform’s candidate engagement tools allow recruiters to reach out to remote and freelance workers quickly, enabling hiring teams to attract the very best candidates for their open roles (even those who are selective about the projects they take on), ensuring they stay engaged through the entire process.

Hyper-Specialized Skill Sets Are in Demand

The need for niche expertise is growing. Businesses aren’t just looking for contractors to fill broad roles—they’re searching for specific skills, whether it’s in tech, engineering, or compliance. Generic hiring methods that rely on job title keyword searching no longer work, especially when it comes to short-term, project-based needs.

Curately.ai’s skill assessments help cut through this problem by evaluating candidates based on the specific skills needed for each role. Instead of relying on resumes packed with generic keywords, recruiters can dig into the concrete competencies of each applicant. By using these skill assessments, you can focus on talent with the specialized expertise required for complex, high-stakes projects.

Short-Term Contracts, Long-Term Relationships

Short-term contracts offer companies a great amount of flexibility with their talent, but the focus on building strong relationships with high-performing talent remains critically important. Businesses want the ability to hire quickly for short projects without sacrificing quality, which requires a solid talent pool to draw from on-demand.

Curately.ai’s talent pooling feature allows recruiters to build and maintain a network of skilled contractors who are ready for re-engagement. With Curately.ai, recruiters can manage relationships with talent, keeping track of top performers and reaching out for future roles. This ensures that when a short-term contract comes up, you have access to candidates who are pre-vetted, familiar with the company’s needs, and who can step in without a steep learning curve.

AI and Automation Are Now Recruitment Staples

Recruitment technology is more embedded in hiring than ever. Automation is now a central part of the recruitment process, from resume screening to initial outreach. According to Bullhorn, "Staffing and recruitment firms that embrace automation have a 64% higher fill rate, submit 33% more candidates per recruiter, and were 55% more likely to report major revenue gains…”.

Curately.ai combines the best of AI and automation while keeping recruiters in control of the decision-making process. Automation through Curately.ai speeds up the resume review process by highlighting candidates based on pre-set filters and skills, reducing the time spent on initial screenings. But that’s not all. The platform still allows curators and recruiters to exercise manual control with features like video interviews, ensuring that even if a candidate passes the first round of filters, you can still evaluate them on a human level before moving forward.

What’s Next?

As contingent recruitment best practices continue to shift, staying ahead of the competition requires more than just knowing the trends—it requires having the right tools to act on them. With Curately.ai’s platform, you can seamlessly balance speed, flexibility, and human-driven decision-making to make smarter hires. By integrating AI, automation, and recruiter-driven insights, Curately.ai empowers you to meet the demands of evolving recruitment challenges head-on, for 2024 and beyond.

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