How did COVID-19 affect the recruiting industry, job market, and the way we recruit? Are these changes permanent? What does the future of recruitment look like? These are just some of the questions being asked by recruiters across the country. This pandemic has certainly changed the recruitment industry. Companies’ hiring needs have evolved along with adaptations in the job market and how recruitment is approached. Let’s take a look at the recruitment cycle and some of the pandemic’s effects.
Hiring Needs
COVID-19 has changed the hiring needs of most companies, but this impact greatly differs between industries. Generally, there has been a decline in hiring. However, in some industries, the demand for new hires has skyrocketed. Due to the lockdown and isolation policies that have been implemented all over the world, some businesses have had to downsize and even shut down, putting their recruitment and hiring on hold due to the uncertain future.
Many organizations were forced to conduct mass layoffs and a significant reduction in working hours, especially in the hospitality and entertainment industries, The recruiting industry was equally imbalanced after the pandemic, however, they were needed to place plenty of employees in other sectors such as health care, food, pharmacy, retail, and supply chain saw the exact opposite effect since there was a sudden increase in demand for their services. To fulfill the demand, these companies had to hire a lot of additional employees. For instance, Instacart, Walmart, and Amazon have been hiring thousands of new employees throughout the pandemic.
Recruitment Methods
During the lockdown, those companies who wanted to continue hiring were forced to alter their recruitment processes and adapt to a new normal. Virtual recruitment has been widely used to protect the health of recruiters, candidates, and their families. Transitioning to 100% online recruitment process was a challenge for most companies. However, some businesses only had to make minor changes in their recruitment process. For the companies that relied on a manual, in-person recruitment process, switching to fully online recruitment had caused, at the very least, some headaches. They most likely got lost in excel tables and emails and lacked appropriate tools to streamline their hiring process. In contrast, those that used recruitment software prior to the pandemic could adapt much faster and easier to entirely virtual recruiting, basically just replacing face-to-face interviews with live video interviews.
Reliable technology is a central component to a successful transition to remote recruitment. Although the pandemic posed a huge challenge for most companies, it has also brought some positive changes. The pandemic has helped many companies update their recruitment process, and it has significantly improved the hiring process, making it shorter and cheaper for employers. So those who have switched to virtual hiring will most likely embrace these changes in the long term, and it will become the new normal, even in the post-pandemic world.
COVID-19 Has Changed the Job Market
A remote work boom was triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, as over half of U.S. employees now have been doing their jobs from home and would prefer to continue to work remotely after the pandemic ends. Employers must accommodate their wishes to keep top talent. With this global shift to remote work, virtual hiring is an essential practice moving forward, including the recruiting industry.
Also, before the pandemic, unemployment rates were meager because it was difficult to attract great candidates. There was a massive drop in applicants across all industries when the pandemic hit. However, now since many companies were forced to fire their employees, there has been a significant spike in worldwide unemployment rates. To put things in perspective, unemployment rose higher in 3 months of COVID-19 than it did in 2 years of the Great Recession.
Future Impacts
The job market will certainly be forever changed due to a sudden shift from office to remote work, triggered by this pandemic. However, working from home can completely transform the job market since it can open the door to a globalized job market.
Before the global shift in remote work, there has only been a global competition for executive roles. However, with this shift, companies that allow work from home will hire people from all over the world and therefore have an unlimited talent pool to choose from. This phenomenon brings about a truly global competition for just about every job role, and the recruiting industry should be aware of this shift.
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