Hiring during coronavirus has become a new normal for our professional reality. It has both pros and cons and it might be a good chance to leverage your business processes and adopt the latest tech solutions to streamline the hiring process.
Hire New Employees During Covid
Most of the companies shifted entirely to remote work during the pandemic crisis. And the question arises «how do you recruit and hire new employees during COVID»? This article covers helpful tips for adapting virtual hiring practices to keep your recruiting funnel moving during this uncertain time and successfully adapt your employee recruitment strategy.
Sixty percent of companies have hired at least one employee since the beginning of the pandemic, according to new research from The Manifest, business news, and how-to website. The hiring trend persists for companies, despite COVID-19’s negative effect on the job market, with the unemployment rate currently hovering around 10.2%.
But Elizabeth Mye, SVP of Global Human Resources with cloud communications provider Intermedia, says there are a number of best practices companies can follow to boost their effectiveness in recruiting and interviewing during the COVID-19 pandemic where online recruiting jobs from home are the major one. In truth, these same best practices will apply long after the pandemic has passed.
Deal with hiring during coronavirus: COVID recruitment troubleshooting
HR managers are struggling to keep under control recruitment flow and use different COVID recruitment troubleshooting techniques in the wake of this outbreak. Fortunately, technology is available to help optimize the process while still producing quality hires. The time is now to move to a virtual recruitment plan — one that protects both employees and candidates, and eliminates risk while continuing to drive hiring efforts.
While half of the companies surveyed by Aptitude Research revealed they were in the early stages of digital transformation, their data suggests that those with a digital transformation strategy were twice as likely to improve quality of hire, and three times more likely to improve candidate experience. NACE data reveals that 16% of employers rely on video interviews for initial screening. For organizations previously considering a move to digital recruitment, now is the time to transform in order to meet recruiter and job seeker needs and minimize risk.
Video interviews together with AI/ML software can definitely help to make the hiring process smarter. Software platforms like Fetcher will take your job request and use machine learning to find relevant candidates that are then engaged via text or email. AI sourcing is a great way to augment your top of funnel recruiting efforts. So, basically, these tools give you mobility and simplify the whole recruitment routine:
- Increase staff productivity with flexible interviews that let staff get more done
- Conduct interviews from anywhere, avoiding delays, and scheduling conflicts while using AI/ML software development. e.g. (chatbots, smart hiring assistants, sourcing, matching, enriching CVs, etc)
- Connect in seconds, with no add-ons or training required
Therefore, hiring during COVID doesn’t look that scary! Even without COVID-19, candidates are looking for organizations with cutting-edge technology and most of the job seekers prefer to communicate digitally. More than half responded that they would not apply to a company if they considered their recruiting methods to be outdated.
Hiring people online - the safest way of hiring during coronavirus
Every day, more and more companies are initiating remote work for at least some staff, while companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft— keep using work from home policy and hiring people online. For example, Amazon canceled most in-person interviews and set up virtual interview portals for candidates to connect with recruiters, complete necessary documents, and take part in interviews.
Amazon canceled most in-person interviews and set up virtual interview portals for candidates to connect with recruiters, complete necessary documents, and take part in interviews via Amazon Chime, the company’s video conferencing software.
Google informed its candidates that interviews were to be conducted in Google Hangouts or using videoconferencing service BlueJeans. LinkedIn told interested job seekers that they have the option of conducting their interviews virtually via BlueJeans or rescheduling until meeting in person is possible.
Kathy Albarado, the CEO of Reston, HR outsourcing and talent acquisition consultancy Helios HR, said that she asked her staff of 40 to work remotely pending further notice because there was reason to believe that her employees’ safety was in danger. In this view the ‘recruit and hire from home’ option doesn’t look like something outstanding but rather nowadays common reality when it comes to HR routine. But even though the selection process should be structured with a detailed recruitment procedure as you used to have before the pandemic including final interview formality and onboarding procedure.
Over the past decades, rapid digital transformation has enabled organizations to completely reimagine the way they work and manage talent. From reliable video conferencing platforms to digital collaboration software, to ubiquitous cloud-based connectivity, and a data-centric approach to strategic decision-making powered by the synergy between Artificial and human intelligence.
Harvard Business Review
Ways to recruit new employees
So, in response to the outbreak what are the ways to recruit new employees while hiring during coronavirus?
Technology has collapsed the boundaries between work and home. But it’s still too early to predict what the future holds. How do we handle uncertainty and start thinking more strategically? We rebuild a workforce that can weather any storm.
Once touching the base for effective recruitment strategies and practices, remote recruiting involves sourcing, matching, selecting, interviewing, and hiring employees who are located elsewhere. Remote recruiters utilize technology to connect with candidates regardless of where they’re located.
In this light, AI /ML technologies become handy, time and cost-efficient and make recruiters’ lives easier. All of the processes mentioned above can be automated, Manatal is one of the numerous software platforms that are on the market and can be adapted to your daily recruiting routine and will make the selection process smarter.
Embracing ways to recruit new employees remotely is especially important now that so many global organizations are transitioning to work from home setting in the wake of the global COVID-19 crisis. Here’s what Glassdoor’s community manager had to say about this shift:
In an effort to reduce some of the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on their businesses, companies are turning to technology to maintain business continuity during this time of uncertainty.
Jo Cresswell, Glassdoor
Recruiting trends in 2021
«The current situation will force many employers to conduct interviewing during COVID over Skype, Zoom, Google Hangouts, and other media instead of face-to-face» said Beth Zoller, an attorney and legal editor for online HR resource site XpertHR.
Talking about recruiting trends in 2021 it’s important to mention that we’re now in an age where AI, augmented reality, and machine learning rule. Actually, finding the right balance between digital and traditional channels is key to recruitment success.
You need to adapt your recruitment strategy to the remote reality. If you have an opportunity to invite your candidates to the office, do so. However, there are times where it won’t always be possible, such as right now during the COVID-19 outbreak.
The pace of recruitment will continue to change over the next months, which is why savvy recruiters are deploying automated recruitment marketing software to build high-quality pipelines of talent. When organizations start to ramp-up hiring again, competition for talent will be more intense than ever. Much more than your regular job ad, recruitment marketing allows your organization to win the best candidates. It does this by broadening your talent network, increasing quality talent conversion, and engaging with candidates at every stage of their application journey.
That’s why it’s important to make sure you’re agile in how you’re recruiting. After all, is said and done, it won’t hurt your business—it will only help you become more tech-savvy, efficient, and prepared for anything.