“Be curious. Use data. Leverage imagination. Be an expert. Be an enthusiast. Be authentic. Know your competition”. – Jim Stroud,HR Consultant, Speaker and Author of The Seven Highly Effective Habits of Sourcing
The concerns over COVID19 safety still plague many job seekers. A recent Forbes survey found that 4.2 million adults are not working because they fear getting or spreading COVID-19. There’s concern about commuting safely on public transportation before the pandemic is entirely under control in more densely populated metropolitan areas.
The fear of spreading or getting the virus caused job seekers to think of their safety first. As the recruitment industry has undergone many changes, new technologies and advanced hiring practices play a huge role in talent attraction.
As a recruitment specialist, you work with hiring managers to find the best employees for an organisation. You evaluate candidates, assess their resumes and credentials, conduct interviews, and build a network of potential employees. You also make use of social media to post job vacancies and identify suitable applicants for organisations.
Here are emerging trends that have a significant impact on recruitment strategy in the new normal:
1. Remote Interviews/Assessment
Interviews/assessments online have made recruitment easier and faster. Candidates do not need to leave their home or space before having the opportunity to show their skills and abilities for the opening. For a virtual interview or assessment, you need to set up an office space or pick a good spot in the house. Use a high-quality laptop with a webcam and microphone. Dress the part and test your equipment to confirm the functions.
2. Candidate Experience
This involves candidate communications through the recruitment process, including job search, application, emails and phone calls, interview, and onboarding. Candidate experience can boost or decrease an applicant’s opinion of the hiring company for reasons that may have little to do with the actual open position—the better the candidate experience, the better the impact on the brand and reputation of the organisation.
3. Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity is hiring, valuing, and respecting individuals with differences in the workplace, including socioeconomic status, race, age, religion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, cultural and international origin, and other groups traditionally underrepresented in society. While inclusion is about how well different groups’ contributions, presence, and perspectives are valued and integrated into an environment. Be aware of unconscious bias, acknowledge religious and cultural holidays, encourage frequent employee feedback, be aware of ageism and strive for a multigenerational workforce.
4. Contingent workers
A contingent worker is someone who works for an organisation without being hired as an employee. These categories of staff are very effective in the new normal as most organisations do more virtual work than physical. Contingent workers can be called upon at any time, and they provide their services under contracts, temporarily, or as-needed basis. They are employed through staffing agencies or other third parties and assigned to work for any organisation.
5. Recruitment Analytics
Recruitment analytics is data for or of the recruiting industry. It helps every hiring team measure the recruitment efforts and adjusts their strategies based on the data gathered rather than instinct or experience alone. These are facts and figures as it is based either on past experiences or future insight. It makes the recruitment processes and decisions easier and faster.
6. Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) for recruitment infuses AI-based solutions into every recruitment process by searching, selecting, and hiring candidates for specific roles. The AI-based solutions used for recruitment are trained to analyse candidates’ resumes to find predefined capabilities relevant to the job. This helps the recruitment manager to save time on recruitment processes and tasks.
7. Skills and competencies
Knowledge, skills and abilities are all important when you’re hiring someone new. You need someone with a theoretical understanding and the skills (or qualifications) to show that they’ve put that knowledge to practical use. Abilities are harder to quantify, so they shouldn’t be a concern during the interview and hiring process but should be an important consideration for future career development.
8. Work Culture
Work culture is the combination of attitudes, beliefs and behaviours that make up the work environment. A healthy workplace culture aligns employee behaviours and company policies with the organisation’s overall goals while also considering the well-being of individuals. It is essential to get the best out of your employees and make them stay in the organisation for many years. Work culture as a concept deals with the beliefs, thought processes, attitudes of every employee.
9. Remote work
This is working virtually from any location other than the office location of the employer. Such locations include an employee’s home, a co-working or other shared space, a private office, or any other place outside of the corporate office building.
Individuals usually use the term “work-from-home” as remote work, but Remote work means that the employee lives outside of the geographic area of the organisation’s primary location. This is why “work from home” might not be accurate in terms of exactly describing where people work remotely.
10. Employer branding
Employer branding helps the organisation hire new employees, create a strong company culture and reduce marketing costs. A reputable employer brand is a must for every organisation’s strategy and goal because it helps organisations recruit best-fit candidates, reduces hiring and marketing costs, and improves productivity and sales.
A retention strategy is also key to the recruitment cycle. To keep the employees engaged and feeling like part of the organisation, hire people who share the organisation’s core values, people who want to grow with the organisation. As an employer, you need to give your employees a sense of purpose at work, and you should also be open in communication. Please provide feedback to employees to help them improve and grow in productivity and be open to giving feedback. As an employer, you also need to develop growth or career path for all employees. This helps to motivate them to achieve their best at work and their personal goals.
In conclusion, selecting the right recruitment firm and using an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) will solve many of your recruitment challenges and streamline your recruiting process. Strategic Recruitment has become a crucial element in future-proofing organisations of all sizes as everyone competes for high-quality talent. Each company’s journey through the recruitment process will be different, but the result is getting the best fit talents and retaining them, which will be the same for all organisations.
At pcl., we create a robust and individually tailored recruitment management process by understanding your organisation’s values, strategy, challenges, and recruitment goals. To learn more about how Phillips Consulting Limited can help you fill your change management goals through a transparent process, please get in touch with us today: people@phillipsconsulting.net
Written by:
Oreoluwa Gbajumo-Umukoro
SeniorAnalyst
