COVID-19 has had a global impact across a variety of industries and sectors, including the way in which recruitment processes have been forced to adapt, with changes that will likely out see the pandemic. From hiring processes themselves to physical workplace settings, a lot has changed to meet the requirements of social distancing, and with very little time to adjust, many companies had to think fast and make changes quickly to survive the scenario.

IT companies also suffered and had to take IT recruitment processes to the next level to meet growing demand. This year we will see a range of recruitment processes, and a shift to a new realm with digital acceleration has paved the way for the industry. The real question at this moment is “is this the ‘new normal’?”. Let’s take a look at six key changes in recruitment due to COVID-19 and see for ourselves if these changes really do represent this sense of permanence.

Virtual Collaboration

Having the correct infrastructure required for virtual collaboration is essential for effective workplace results. The range of virtual tools and techniques available for use in the present day have allowed for significant change and adaptation for use during the pandemic. This has been a definite eye-opening experience for some business owners and employees, who have benefited from home-working within a matter of days, up to a 4.7x increase in remote working when compared to pre-pandemic. This change and acceptance across the industry has drastically broadened talent pools and bettered opportunities for both candidates and companies.

Remote Interviews

Whilst many companies already utilized virtual interviews in their hiring process pre-pandemic, the inability to host candidates onsite for final stage meetings meant that in some cases, new employees were hired on a fully remote basis and have been working for companies for upwards of 6 months, without ever having met a colleague in person. This has again proven itself to be a successful process to hiring managers and is likely to become common practice post-pandemic. For candidates, that could mean no more stepping into a room full of confusion and potential awkwardness whilst you wait to be interviewed, but instead choosing a comfortable corner of your own home with minimal downtime. 

Flexible working arrangements

Pre-pandemic, it was all too often frowned upon to ask for remote working and flexible working hours. Some companies lacked confidence in their workforce and such requests were often rejected without any real consideration. However, now this practice is essential for survival in desk-based roles. Organizations have had to shift their employees from offices to homeworking, and in many cases have been surprised by the increased productivity that ensued. Remote working generally leads to increased performance, higher work satisfaction and lower employee turnover.

Working Relationships

The reduction in face-to-face interaction has proven difficult on working relationships. The emotions, gestures and opinions that we rely upon in daily life and communication with peers has been lost due to the distance that the pandemic has brought upon us, but companies are getting better at making the necessary arrangements to deal with this shortcoming. In recruitment processes, it can be difficult to convey these emotions and to create and maintain necessary connections via digital means, especially throughout onboarding processes, however, is a skill we likely need to adapt to and adopt for the foreseeable.

New Skills

Hiring managers have largely had to adapt their processes given the difficult times faced. Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, some roles were unfortunately made redundant and jobs were lost, creating a huge market of jobseekers, and amplifying the number of applicants per role. This boom in talent also brought with it a range of new skills and whilst making it more difficult for candidates to find a role, means that in many cases positions are being filled by extremely well-skilled candidates (and potentially sometimes over skilled). Has this necessary trend to meet filling demand led to a potentially unrealistic new standard for hiring managers?

Diversity

The increase in remote and flexible working abilities which have been accepted during the pandemic and likely beyond, have allowed hiring managers to widen their talent pool, especially in technical and IT focused roles. Broadening the talent pool in this way should have allowed the inclusion of previously unconsidered and underrepresented candidates; however, Time for Change found that whilst 57% of respondents believed that their organization were trying to improve diversity pre-pandemic, over a third (34%) believe that COVID-19 has delayed efforts to improve diversity, inclusion and belonging. Loss of childcare during the pandemic means that a third of working mothers have lost work or hours, rising to 44% of Black, Asian and minority ethnic mothers.

Are these changes the ‘new normal’ for the recruiting world?

The changes that were enforced upon companies and hiring processes throughout the global pandemic were accepted with varying levels of enthusiasm. Fully online practices such as virtual interviewing, isolated onboarding and fully remote working have proven to be extremely cost- and time-effective, but some individuals are looking forward to returning to the office and craving some human interaction.

Younger generations that are tech-savvy are likely to welcome the change in their relevant industries. Generation Z will soon surpass Millennials as the most populous generation on Earth, and are unlikely to want to work in outdated practices. So, companies who are looking for top talent and fresh candidates need to make themselves well acquainted with digital media and follow these trends. Fortunately, COVID-19 has taught us digital communications and virtual practices in the plenty.

New preferences on how people work, where they want to work and who they want to work with means that the recruitment process fundamentally needs to change and will continue to evolve in order to retain and development talent. The shifts and changes in recruitment processes due to COVID-19 are likely to be the ‘new normal’ of the recruitment world and will be seen in 2021 and beyond. Here are the best 7 tips to successful recruitment post-COVID.

 About Oliver Parks

Oliver Parks offers search-based recruitment solutions to the technology sector, specialising in ERP, CRM, e-commerce, Business Intelligence, Mobile Development. Data Science & Engineering, Cloud Computing, Web Development, Content Management and Cyber Security. The firm’s multilingual consultants operate in narrowly-defined niche market segments, enabling them to gain extensive knowledge of the people and companies operating in each technology.  Oliver Parks has a proven track-record with more than 100,000 candidates worldwide and more than 300 clients globally.