The 2025 Hiring Shift: What Employers & Job Seekers Must Know

The talent market is always evolving—are you keeping up? In this episode, we break down the shifting power dynamics between employers and candidates, plus what it really takes to stand out in today’s hiring landscape. Whether you’re hiring or job hunting, this episode is packed with insights to help you navigate today’s talent market—tune in now!

Summary

In this episode of Advancing Talent Acquisition, recruiting expert Jeff Martin joins us to discuss the shifting power dynamics between employers and candidates. He dives into how job seekers have evolved into consumers of the hiring process, leveraging research and technology to be more selective, while employers must adapt by moving quickly and treating hiring as a two-way street.

Episode 5

Jenna Hinrichsen 
Welcome to the Advanced RPO Podcast, Advancing Talent Acquisition. I could not be more excited for our guest today, Jeff Martin. He is a risk taker, a disruptor of the status quo, and he is my spirit animal. So Jeff, after that introduction, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background. 

Jeff Martin  
Man, I’ll keep it simple. I am a recruiter at heart, right? Yes, I own a business, a staffing firm and have a bunch of employees. But as I was just telling you, I wake up every day and still recruit. One, because I love it. And two, if you’re going to own a recruiting business, you really need to understand the trends and response rates and things like that. So it’s one reason that I never stop, but at the end of the day I’m a recruiter and as you know, adapted way before anyone, you know, some of my LinkedIn strategies and sort of put me on the map that way but that’s it true and through. 

Jenna Hinrichsen  
Authentic, I would say you are.  

Jeff Martin   
Oh yeah. But I wake up every day and go to find good people as my down to earth answer. 

Jenna Hinrichsen  
Our topic today is the power shift between employers and candidates. So, a lot of people refer to this as the employer driven market versus a candidate driven market. You know, what market are we in? So on and so forth. So currently the power is held by the employers according to labor market data. And the perception is that when employers are in power, if you will, companies don’t have to cater as much to workers and can pay them less. What are your thoughts on that? 

Jeff Martin  
100%, My God, I’ve been waiting for this day. And listen, you know, we’re starting this new recruiting company that’s pro candidate. How do we help them better? How do we give them more love? I’m not like happy about it that they don’t get it, but we needed, you know, from COVID, we needed a reset, especially in mortgage and finance, which I’m in. So, first it started that anyone can call their own shots. I’m going to work on the moon. You’re going to pay me this. And people had to because there was more jobs than people actually qualified for in the world. That was a fact. You know, then you heard, all right, we’ll never go back, we’re remote. I was one of the only ones that said, I guarantee this won’t last.
Now for some roles, it’s perfect, right? It opened up a lot of roles where people can now do what they want, but a lot, it wasn’t, right? Especially newbies being trained and need hands-on. And we are finally all the way back. It was out of control. Over the years, it was a little and oh, so and so, said back to work, two days a week, hybrid, which I think some companies are using that to figure out the sweet spot, right? There are many, many, many that are back in the office And that’s the difference, right? 
And companies started saying, all right, we got to get back to one company culture, you know. And by the way, there’s plenty of positions that you could work remote, be successful. You don’t need the “rah rah”, right? So that’s fine. That will stay. 
And I’ll say this – the candidates don’t care. Like there was a period where if it wasn’t remote, I don’t want to talk to you. I haven’t had that, but maybe one time where it was a deal killer in the last like six months. 
So I think both parties understand, and I’ll be honest, I think the job seekers are starting to be like, you know what? It’s kind of cool going in and talking to people and having friends and happy hours. 

Jenna Hinrichsen  
Yeah, it’s definitely a shift, especially for the new generation.

Jeff Martin 
They need it the most. They were the ones I was the most worried about, If you don’t understand company culture and your first job is in your living room on Zoom, like you lose something. 

Jenna Hinrichsen  
You don’t have that backbone structure that you need to be successful.  
Okay, so you said something in a recent post that really resonated with me. You said that candidates are no longer just job seekers. They’re consumers of the hiring process. Tell us what you mean by that. 

Jeff Martin  
Well, it used to just be sort of, put your resume, submit and pray, I call it. And there’s just tools now and access, really LinkedIn, really being the biggest one, but some AI tools, where anyone can now get a hold of you. And I don’t have to just send my resume in. And there’s so many tools and sites or whatever, all the way down to social where, I can really check out your office and know about you and the people there before I even submit a resume. Now it’s let me do my research. Let me see if I even want to waste my time. And there’s enough info out there across platforms and information to get on the phone with people. I had two calls in the last week of people that wanted recruiting roles that figured out a way, let me just call. So it’s no more, let me just put my resume in and pray so in calls. It’s let me try to hunt down who’s hiring. Let me me do some research online. Let me go on social, see what’s going on.

Jenna Hinrichsen  
And I think it’s great. I think it’s great where, I, not struggle with it, but where I see challenges with it is that companies are slow to adapt to that new methodology that candidates are using when they’re searching for jobs. And so are they prepared to answer questions about a culture, about the job? It’s not like there’s people hanging out on trees out front that as soon as you have a job open that want to come in and work, there’s so much competition out there, especially with remote. 

Jeff Martin 
100 % and as you know, I consult a lot and a lot of the people I consult with are my clients, but it’s just hey, you know, what do we do here versus someone I don’t recruit for? First thing is speed, right? There are a lot of good jobs and there are a lot of good candidates. And depending on the job, listen, there’s high level stuff – that’s different. Right. But the average job seeker now has some options because there’s a lot of people hiring. Right. And I don’t know every single sector. So I can’t pretend to do. But I tell my clients, I say, listen, I’ve had this call on Monday and they loved two candidates. I said, all right, better make an offer tonight or they’re gone. At some levels, if you’re just looking for the sales individual six to 10 years out, right? There’s a million other companies looking for that person. And just don’t think that you’re so special. You’re the only place they’re interviewing at. And I say you need and realize that if they’re good enough for you, then they’re good enough for 10 other places. And they’re not waiting five weeks for four interviews. That’s the one thing that did help in COVID, because it got down to let’s just do a Zoom and get it over with, right? 

Jenna Hinrichsen  
Right. I think companies have to be more prepared when they’re going in and it’s not a one-way interview like it used to be back in the day. It’s a two-way interview. And if you’re not prepared as a hiring manager or a company to really sell the opportunity and sell the company, you’re not going to get talent to your point. There’s lots of opportunities that people can pick from. So it’s not – just because you enjoy and love working at the company that you work for, that doesn’t mean that everyone will or knows why. And so you have to be prepared to answer questions. And really, I think at the end of the day, if candidates aren’t asking you questions about the company and putting you in that position to sell, then do you wonder if they’re really serious about the job? For me as a hiring manager, that’s a good indicator that someone is serious about this opportunity, this company. They want to know more about what we’re doing. They want me to sell them on it why they should work here. So I really think it’s much more of a two-way street. 

Jeff Martin  
I’ve never had more as a company and me personally, interviews, turned down jobs than in the last year. Which tells you they have options, right? Years ago, there was none. Then there was COVID where they can have a job. You know, there’s people as you know, working two jobs and no one knew about it, right? But I’ve never seen it. And I tell my clients this, I’ve never seen more jobs turned down because they have other good opportunities. And I actually like that because that makes it – you better roll out the red carpet a little bit better, make these people feel like this is where I want to be. 

Jenna Hinrichsen  
Exactly. So as we talked about, we’re currently in what we would consider an employer driven market and employers have more power. When we’re in a candidate driven market, you know, talking about COVID and during that time when there were so many opportunities, there was a lot of candidate ghosting and I think we called it the great resignation. What standards do you think candidates should be held to when they’re technically holding the power in the market? 

Jeff Martin  
I’ll tell you this, I literally told someone this the other day, you still have to be respectful, right? You can play your game, but don’t forget the recruiter or the owner that you’re sort screwing over. We know people, it’ll come back, right? You know, so I always say, listen, you may not wanna go work there. It may not be for you. You may not like the culture, but respect the opportunity. Respect the person that’s giving you the opportunity, you know, I don’t see much of that anymore. 
Right? You know, have companies opening their doors. All you have to do is pick up your phone and say, no, thank you.  
By the way, that also on some levels starts with the recruiter or their contact, because if you’re treating that person right, they feel comfortable telling you everything. It can go both ways. Hey, I might ghost you because you never got back to me. 

Jenna Hinrichsen  
Yes, agreed. They can go both ways. And that’s the point in this. Just do the right thing, right? 

Jeff Martin  
Don’t be that person. Just no thank you, send an email, right? And most people do, to be honest. 

Jenna Hinrichsen  
Yes. Well, and candidates have always had the complaint, if you will, that employers are ghosting or not getting back to them. So I think it’s a two-way street. I think when employers are in power, if you will, or job seekers are in power, both companies and individuals owe common respect is what it comes down to.

Jeff Martin  
Totally. 100%. And that’s all I said. I said, don’t burn a bridge. You know how many candidates that I placed somewhere else and the first role didn’t make sense or work out, but they – two things, I was nice to them. So they felt comfortable coming back and they were nice to me. Why not reach out to you? But we have times where somebody will apply to a job. They don’t really know it’s us behind the scenes. 
And recruiters will say, that guy or girl, you know, ghosted me. So you’re going to lose the opportunity. 

Jenna Hinrichsen  
Agreed, 100%. Okay, so one more question for you. I ask every podcast guest this question. It’s my favorite. What is your top career tip that you’d like to share with our listeners? So this doesn’t have to be about the topic today, anything. If you could give one piece of advice to people about their career, what would it be? 

Jeff Martin  
Oh man, so this, yeah, so I got a bunch, right? If it was an interview, it’d be something else, you know, as I have a lot of CEOs that say this, but if you take care of the work, it’ll take care of you, So whatever you’re going in to do, do it at such a level – I tell people all the time, I say, hey, like, like someone starts a job and six months in, they’re not running the show. Hey, the cream will always rise. So this is why I tell anyone listening, any CEO, any good company notices when the cream is rising.  
You may think you’re ready to be tapped on the shoulder, but you’re not, it’ll come. So just take care of the work and it will take care of you. The take care of you part is you will be noticed, I promise you. You will be seen, you will move up, you will get that promotion. But, if you’re just going through the motions, punch in, punch out, nine to five, then you’re not taking care of the work. 
Somebody’s paying you to do a job. Don’t just do it, kill it. 

Jenna Hinrichsen 
And you have to be consistent with that. It’s not like you can come into a job and kill it to your point for six months and then say, well, I’ve been doing it and no one’s recognizing me. So now I’m going to just kind of sit back and do work, but not really put all of it in. You’ve got to go a hundred percent. That’s one of the things that I love about you is that you, are a hundred percent all the time. And I think that’s why you’re creating those opportunities for yourself. And that’s what people need to understand, I think, from that piece of advice. 

Jeff Martin  
Take care of the work and the work will take care of you. That’s like the most easy standard across every single, career in the world. That’s it. You’re being hired for some sort of job. Do it above and beyond and you’ll move up. Everything else will work. Yep. 

Jenna Hinrichsen  
Everything else will fall into place. I love that so much.  
Thank you, Jeff, for joining us today. This was a great conversation. And for our listeners, make sure you subscribe to this podcast. And if you have a topic that you’re interested in that we haven’t covered yet, please mention it in the comments and we will pick that topic up for an episode in the future. Thank you again, Jeff, and see you all next time. 

Jeff Martin  
I’ll talk to you soon. 

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