Unsurprisingly, the COVID-19 pandemic is having a considerable impact on companies and even the recruitment industry. As organizations are struggling to adjust to the new normal created by this public health emergency, there are lots of changes being implemented to live as we know it. It has been more than four months since the virus surfaced, and as it ravages on, there are some vital lessons it has taught companies struggling to find their feet. Would these lessons have an impact on their recruitment policy? Well, there are a few things to look at.
Work Crisis in Various Sectors
COVID-19 has caused a significant crisis in companies across several sectors. Some of the hardest-hit include the travel sector, which had recruitment freezes, and a lot of them offered employees unpaid leave. There was a significant reduction in job applications, as more employees were being laid off while job seekers couldn’t be available for physical interviews. In the travel industry, this would be its worst crisis in close to two decades. Other sectors, including hospitality industries are also experiencing difficulties as a result of coronavirus.
Lessons from COVID-19
Before COVID-19, it was pretty much the norm to hold recruitment procedures through face-to-face contact. The advent of a pandemic that discourages physical contact, has necessitated the unwillingness of people to converge in large gatherings due to fear and efforts to contain the virus. Therefore, firms have had to modify their recruitment policies to accommodate processes that won’t put the lives of job seekers at risk. The biggest lesson from the COVID-19 pandemic is the importance of technology to keep up with the changes. Now, firms are embracing remote online recruitment through the use of digital tools.
To avoid face-to-face meetings as much as possible, recruiters have had to turn to online communication tools, including the use of video conferencing methods. Applications like Zoom, Skype, and Microsoft Teams have become the new venue for interviewing candidates and communicating with clients. Companies have started looking into leveraging their digital capabilities and modifying their procedures to ensure that they recruit quality employees. Other changes expected will be in the aspect of hiring based on skills more than based on degree. There is a huge possibility that more companies will move towards skills-based hiring as they focus majorly on hiring people for tasks that require uniquely human skills of critical thinking and creativity.
Two significant lessons learned from COVID-19 are the need for improved technology and how people can work remotely without the need for a collective physical workspace. Therefore, it will be expected that more companies will embrace the use of tools that will make remote work more comfortable. This will be in anticipation of a more digitized workplace. This will be matched by the search for people with the creative skills to keep up with this new routine. No doubt, remote working, which will become more rampant post-COVID-19, will lead to the redundancy of several roles. Therefore, the recruitment policy of firms may be updated in line with the lessons collaboration and creativity, that coronavirus has taught us.
