Hiring: What a difference a year makes!
- April 21, 2021
It feels like a lifetime ago that we embarked on the first lockdown, now it’s hard to imagine a world without masks, jabs and covid tests. When we think about where we were a year ago, it’s encouraging to see how well people have adapted. This is particularly true with the hiring process which has taken a quantum leap since March 2020!
Onboarding Remotely
One big obstacle was learning how to onboard new employees remotely, this can make such a difference to the first impression the new starter receives from your business and ultimately decide the success of the hire. Employers who have become adept at sending out laptops and immediately engaging new employees via zoom, teams etc.
We have proved that working from home is effective if properly monitored and candidates now demand flexible working arrangements accordingly. In fact, we have found employers that don’t offer flexible working reduce the candidate pool by as much as 70%.
LinkedIn & Job Boards
Covid caused and initial surge in redundancies and saturated the market. LinkedIn’s “open to work” graphic helped recruiters and hiring managers identify the candidates needing work the most and job boards helped connect applicants to employers quickly.
Video Interviews
Traditionally at least one interview stage has been face-to-face. However, Covid put a swift end to this, and recruitment consultancies have had to adapt. Most hiring managers have been using video interview technology to fill this void. It also solves the problem where companies are hiring for remote based roles and the application is not necessarily in the same area as the job.
Interestingly, video interview technology like Hinterview has been around for a while and a lot of recruiters have made use of this to help recruit when they cannot necessarily meet the candidate in person. This has certainly helped during the pandemic and will only be more common in the hiring process in future.
Although it’s been a strange year, it’s been a great chance to learn how we can develop and adapt to something out of our control. If you would like to find out how we can help with your virtual recruitment process, please get in touch.