Where will Recruitment go from here?
Waking up over the past few weeks, the quiet of the traffic has returned (I can hear birds from my window from the home office today as I write this), and the country perseveres through lockdown 3.0, I have been researching how the pandemic will change recruitment once the world re-opens again. During those daily briefings (next slide please) we the increased figures of the vaccination numbers and can finally see a glimmer of hope in the distance. Despite having a long way to go and the death toll, sadly, still rising in shocking numbers in the UK, I feel like there is light at the end of this once very dark tunnel.
So as a fledgling business we are examining the way we work, talking to our clients and focusing on how recruitment might change post-pandemic? What things have we learnt from this incredibly difficult time in our lives, does virtual work or are we all craving to return to the face to face human approach of interviewing? How can we improve our service for the future and provide our clients and candidates with the best recruitment offering in this new virtual world?
For ourselves, as with many other companies, the vast majority of our interviews for the past year have been online. After mastering the art of the Zoom/Teams/ Skype/WhatsApp etc. we have been meeting candidates virtually to prepare, pre-interview and brief before an interview with clients.
For the first time, it has sparked recruiters and hiring managers to create completely virtual end-to-end recruiting strategies. Many recruiters are embracing the cost and time-saving benefits of this, however, there are some challenges. Businesses will need to refine the virtual process and, as they master the technology, also make sure to add the human touch back into virtual recruiting. They need to examine how they offer the ‘look and ‘feel’ of their business and culture to a candidate who they really want to work for them.
This not only saves time and cost for the client and recruiter but also the candidate. If you have a think, I could have ten to twelve candidate briefings in one day for two or three roles I am working on at any one time. By the time the candidates travels to the office, has the meeting and returns home they could have spent over two hours doing so. This means that some candidates who may already be working full-time roles who are looking for a new role, will be more willing to register interest as they are aware that the virtual process may be less time-consuming.
Recruiting teams have been stretched and re-drawn in recent months and that’s likely to continue. From working with hiring slow-downs (or in some industries such as supermarkets/healthcare or online retailers, massive spikes), to dealing with ever-shifting client priorities, recruiters will have to adapt to keep afloat. Instant meetings with customers ‘lets hop onto Zoom’ is the new norm, being ready to build relationships faster that also offer more accessibility are key. The video call will eventually phase out the telephone call as we all become more adept online.
This accessibility to meet instantly as if we are on Star Trek I am sure will develop over the years but there is no denying that the Pandemic has escalated the speed of this use of technology. I am sure that many more of us ‘facetime’ relatives currently rather than call. There is something more reassuring about seeing a loved ones face when you cannot see them in person?
In my opinion, it is finding a balance of both virtual and in-person recruitment, nothing will replace that handshake, kiss on two cheeks or hug , it always ‘seals the deal’ somehow?
Despite this, I think we can all agree that recruitment has seen some major change in the past year and some aspects of this are here to stay for the foreseeable, if not for the long-term.