Remote work is something that the global workforce in industries besides the SaaS segment are now openly adopting, in part due to the social distancing norms enforced by the ongong Covid-19 pandemic. With a small percentage of the workforce returning to the office model since June, several employees and employers alike are still continuing with work from home measures to reduce the potential threat of the Covid-19 illness on their staff.
As a result of this growing need for a remote work experience, there is now a need to redefine hiring models as well, with HR teams requiring new policies and strategies to imbibe virtual hiring features while also re-looking what tools they put in place and how they source candidates through this time.
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Even as financial markets show signs of volatility and a large number of the workforce suffer from unemployment and layoffs, many segments like health care, technology and telecom sectors seem to be open to hiring in spite of the pandemic and its effects.
There has been a boost in growth and demand for certain innovations in these segments, because the increased need to work from home demands certain supporting innovations (like protective gear, employee safety tech, SaaS tools that help enable better remote work, etc), and in turn, sectors that are seeing a growth in hiring opportunities have had to turn to new technologies and processes to engage the right candidates.
While several of these HR technologies might have been available before, now is the time that companies are slowly opening up to their capabilities and features.
New Processes in HR and Hiring
According to recent research by Jobvite, 84% recruiters are adapting their recruitment processes to imbibe a remote experience. Research also suggests that 58% of the recruiters surveyed are using platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn to connect with potential hires and even to advertise vacancies. While the use of LinkedIn is commonplace across industries when it comes to sourcing candidates, the idea of including other networks is a result that can be attributed to more candidates being active on multiple platforms while working from home.
Video Conferencing
Video conferencing has been the talk of the town in sales and marketing given the rise in work from home models during the ongoing Covid-1 pandemic. Similarly, in order to imbibe a virtual hiring process that allows candidates and recruiters to understand each other’s other attributes and some elements of their core character traits, the need to see a candidate via video conferencing is important. Besides the routine phone call methods that allow recruiters to get candidates through the first couple of rounds, the final stages of the virtual hiring process does demand a video chat or two with key personnel within the company. This in a way has replaced the need for a face to face interview at a time when a face to face might not be possible due to the pandemic.
AI-powered Job Outreach Tools And Analytics
The need for HR to step up their game and also ensure a sound remote work experience for existing employees while ensuring vacancies are filled using remote processes demands better HR tools to help with job outreach and identification of candidates. Companies are now also looking at investing in Analytics tools to help scan several candidates and help shortlist the most relevant few based on specific keywords and skills sets so that they can achieve their hiring goals while maintaining their existing HR functions well during a remote work schedule.
In a recent article, Michael Wright, Global Head of Talent Acquisition for media investment company GroupM said that their firm had been moving to a digital recruitment format for years but the current pandemic has resulted in them refocusing efforts on discovering what candidates can do and become as opposed to what they did in their career in the past.
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How will Today’s Job Seekers Need to Adapt?
The effects of these hiring changes doesn’t mean that candidates need only to adjust to changing trends by fixing their video interview responses and how they choose to conduct themselves during one. This change in hiring trends, or, this shift to remote hiring trends demands that candidates should now understand how to interact with AI-powered outreach software, AI-powered recruitment chatbots and other tools that are now being used extensively to screen profiles.
The growing use of talent acquisition platforms that screen applications based on specific skills are on the rise requiring candidates to relearn how they craft their profiles and put their CVs up for presentation through these platforms.
Creating simple resumes that a software can read easily while enriching profiles with the right search-terms will serve job seekers well during this time and for the near-future.
It is also crucial for job seekers to now get creative with their applications and to use this time to stand out during a video interview process. Keeping in mind that a face to face interview and other aspects of the typical hiring process is being replaced with tech, enriching one’s CVs with the right graphics and representations of one’s capabilities is also important in trying to stand out among the hundreds of applicants out there looking for jobs amid a crisis.
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Are these New Hiring Trends Here to Stay?
There are several situational changes that have impacted or will impact the hiring process around the world. The current Covid-19 pandemic has demanded the need for better HR technologies and automation to enable HR teams to achieve their hiring goals in the face of a pandemic. It has also demanded a shift to adapting new technologies to help motivate and run a remote workforce easily while ensuring optimal productivity.
The current changes in the hiring industry are an impact of the ongoing crisis. As companies manoeuvre through the next couple of months and try their best to optimize processes amid the growing uncertainties, the technologies and features that will be needed may change. As companies readopt to changing trends based on how the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic play out, they may look at candidates not based on geographical locations, given that the move to a new city for a new job might be on hold for a while coming. Then there’s also the travel and government restrictions that might soon impact how hiring is conducted worldwide. Hiring and on-boarding cross-border candidates might become a new norm and ensuring their basic management criteria are met will require a new set of technologies and tools.