Big Changes Coming to Hiring in the Post Covid-19 World

The Unexpected Shift to Remote Work

People who have experience with partial or completely virtual teams have long known that there are a unique set of challenges that come with remote work. Peer-to-peer relationships must be built & maintained with much more intentionality; the necessity of clear, proactive communication increases tenfold; & striking a healthy balance between personal & professional demands becomes both more important & difficult.

Layer the fact the coronavirus-induced shift to remote work is both involuntary & indefinite, & the problems increase tenfold. Understandably, anxiety & loneliness are both running extremely high. So, what can employers do to help?

COVID-19 Will Have Businesses Recruiting More Remote Workers

Recent studies show that remote work is increasing in popularity among employers & job seekers alike. Global trends show that remote work has increased 159% over the last 12 years. Not only that, but job seekers are seeing it more as a requirement than a perk. In fact, 68% say the ability to work remotely impacts their decision on whether or not to take a new job.

The demand for remote workers will increase drastically with the onset of COVID-19.

Given the recent shift in our working lives due to COVID19, it’s more important than ever to be prepared to recruit remote workers. Reports are already showing that this unprecedented crisis may have long lasting effects on the job market & a boom in remote work well after it has passed. While it might be ideal for your company to have people onsite, the recent crisis has shown us you must be prepared for a hybrid or even fully remote workforce at any moment. 

If you’re planning on investing in remote employees or even just offering telecommuting options for your current staff, you’ll need to invest in the right technology. Most companies with a remote workforce opt to use video conferencing software to connect their distributed team. 

Not only is video conferencing software ideal for keeping your current remote team members engaged, it also opens up your candidate pool. Interviewing out-of-state employees for remote positions is easier with video conferencing software & much more cost-effective than flying every candidate out to the office for an in-person meeting.

2. Recruitment Marketing Will Be Front-&-Center

Before the rise of social media, it was easy to stay in control of your brand story, but employer branding has evolved in the age of websites like Glassdoor & LinkedIn. Any potential applicant can Google your company before deciding if they want to work there. All of this makes employer branding more important than ever when it comes to recruiting new talent. 

Companies will need to rethink their recruitment marketing throughout the rest of 2020.

Using an omnichannel approach like recruitment marketing keeps your business top-of-mind when people are job seeking, as well as allows you to keep tabs on your online reputation. Recruitment marketing uses common marketing tactics to attract & nurture people to apply for jobs at your organization. A project management tool can make sure that all parties, such as HR & creative, are one the same page for all recruitment brand materials going out.

Recruitment marketing opens your talent pool up to passive candidates & other applicants you might not have access to otherwise. They may not be job hunting now, but when they do decide that it’s time to move on, your organization will be top-of-mind because of the relationship you’ve built. It’s a long play for attracting top level talent.

Deploying Chatbots to Handle Recruiting

Recruiters already use artificial intelligence & machine learning to identify potential candidates who have the right skill sets & experiences for the roles they're trying to fill. But what if there's a new manufacturing plant opening & you're tasked with finding 100 people to work specialized machinery? Or there's a new restaurant that needs to find 30 people to fill various types of roles? In certain industries like these, which typically don't use recruiters, the process could take significant time.

This is an issue our firm's clients are facing. With the solution: robotic process automation (RPA), more commonly known as chatbots. It adds recruiting processes to an industry or possible industries that never really had that before.

Essentially, the chatbot asks a candidate if they're interested in the job. If they are, the bot sends over a job simulation--a video or written description of the role. Next the bot sends qualifier questions &, if the candidate is a fit, schedules an in-person interview. Paradox, for example, offers a chatbot called Olivia that reaches out to potential candidates by text message, SMS, & messaging platforms like FB Messenger, Whatsapp, or WeChat.

The cost of talent acquisition at that level needs to be pretty low. So companies are looking for a kind of chain of pre-configured process automation where the bot itself is engaging the candidate through the entire recruiting process, rather than the recruiters themselves.

3. The Onboarding Experience Will Be Reimagined

What good is recruiting top talent if you can’t keep them around for more than a few weeks? The onboarding experience is crucial to retaining newly hired employees. In fact, 64% of new hires are likely to leave after a negative onboarding experience. Recruitment & onboarding can no longer function are two separate processes & instead must become one.

The onboarding process will look much different near the end of 2020.

Streamlining & extending your employee onboarding process can help prevent turnover. Employee training shouldn’t end after a new hire’s first day. Build-in continued education & learning along with onboarding, & reimagine what it means to onboard an employee. All of this is crucial to ensuring your new employees are fully engaged during onboarding.

Employee onboarding software can help you iron out the little details, automate mundane daily tasks, & allow your HR & recruiting team to focus on creating a more personalized & comprehensive onboarding experience. Whether you need to employ a remote desktop software, organize team wide training, or more, it can help keep all members on track.