Impact of COVID-19 on the Job Market & Recruitment Industry

Last year took a turn for many of us and has changed our lives significantly. The pandemic and its repercussions affected almost every sector including the recruitment industry. It has affected talent acquisition teams where they had to adopt the virtual recruiting process. Onboarding a remote team was seen as a norm for many companies relying on a professional recruitment company to hire talents.

Let’s have a look, how COVID-19 has impacted the job market and recruitment industry.

Virtual Hiring Trend

The pandemic has changed the way of hiring for many companies. Now a hybrid team of onsite and remote workers has become normal for any recruitment agency. The hiring process includes virtual and in-person. According to a LinkedIn survey, virtual hiring is here to stay because of the time and cost savings. Now, recruiters do not hesitate to conduct job interviews virtually. It is embraced by businesses that are resuming in-person operations. The automated interview has replaced various in-person factors while providing a safety layer as social distancing rules are followed. In 2020, virtual recruiting has greatly helped firms streamline their hiring processes. IT recruiters can access better potential candidates by crossing geographic barriers.

Due to these significant gains, virtual hiring has got its place in the talent acquisition strategies of almost every industry. Many employers are willing to continue the idea of virtual recruiting even once it is safe to invite candidates for in-person interviews again. It has also been observed that the future workplace will be less remote after the COVID-19 vaccination takes place. People will love to return to the office to share the workspace with their colleagues. While the pandemic has taught us the resilience of working remotely via Zoom calls, it is not going to last forever. Humans are social animals and ultimately, they require a direct connection with people.

Skill Sets for Recruiters

Being productive while working remotely was a challenge faced by almost every corporate professional.

The IT recruiters have also faced challenges and hence, they had to work on personal development and they almost double their normal learning consumption observing the change in the job market. Many recruiters have taken the help of the virtual learning platform that helps them with talent advisory training and virtual interviewing. Adaptability has become the most essential skill for recruiters in 2021 after the COVID-19 situation. Recruiters are continuing to add skills including sorting the talent data, restructuring the employer branding. It helps them fine-tune with the virtual hiring process which has become more normalized these days. Due to the pandemic, recruiters had to go the extra mile to understand the needs of employers who are struggling with their business fluctuation.

Recruiting IT staff slowed down considerably as the virus started spreading which paved the way for learning opportunities for recruiters. They looked at the downtime as an opportunity to invest in their skills and figure out the future needs to sustain themselves in the recruitment industry. From rethinking talent strategy to learning to integrate new tools and develop training materials, recruiters had to take up the responsibility. They also did not hesitate to explore hot topics like social recruiting, talent metrics, and virtual hiring. As a result, recruiters have turned into better talent advisors after finding the demand of evolving labour market where hiring managers reached to them for filling top positions.

More Internal Hiring

The recruiting budget has seen a fall because companies preferred to hire internally. Many people anticipate an increase in the learning and development budget. However, some experts believe that the companies prefer to build their team through internal moving programs associated with reskilling initiate to engage the talent rather than hiring externally. Recruiting IT experts also predict that organizations will continue to shift from static job towards the job, which is project-based by changing business needs. Talent Acquisition Experts suggest that internal mobility brings along multiple benefits like increased engagement, a short hiring process, and less cost. However, improved retention will remain the biggest benefit.

On the other hand, employees continue to associate with companies for a longer period than hiring internally. We have already seen the benefits of internal mobility and it can be shifted from an ad hoc solution to a must corporate strategy. It will bring HR and L&D together and develop a better understanding of the skill sets and help them addressing skill gaps in their companies. By partnering with a recruitment agency, they will be able to build a robust program for internal mobility. Many leading companies like IBM and Novartis are now building a company culture where skills are given utmost importance. They have started relying on HR programs for skills and technology to create a thriving atmosphere for talent. It has given a rise to the job market in 2021.

Role of Recruiters

According to industry experts, the recruiters will be focusing on DE&I diversity, equity, and inclusion. Now more employees will make job choices based on the evaluation of an organization’s existing D E&I. Many firms have recognized that they are being strictly observed by stakeholders and hence, they are committed to dynamic diversity targets. Due to the pandemic, 70 percent of job seekers express interest in working for a company that shows a commitment to diversity and inclusion. Almost 50% of talent professionals shared on LinkedIn that hiring managers will not be held responsible for interviewing a diverse list of candidates. The hiring managers are not responsible for interviewing a diverse roster of potential candidates.

More recruiters will work to discard initial barriers like educational qualifications and advocate more for a varying pipeline of professionals to move them through the hiring process. Diversity is a business-critical factor and a recruitment company needs to provide a diverse pipeline of candidates. Recruiters now have to play an advisory role as well for the hiring experts they support. It could be achieved through restructuring the hiring process to decrease bias and build various interview panels. Besides, they also have to mandate the data-driven reporting against the diversity objectives. The availability of potential candidates and geographic flexibility will continue to expatiate the significance of investing in the right tools. As a result, the goal of building diverse teams will be achieved.