The U.S. is heaving a collective sigh of relief now that COVID numbers are slowing down and much of the country is beginning to resume a pre-pandemic approach to life. Last year, which included record-breaking job losses and unemployment as high as 16% in May, was tough on the country’s workforce. But according to Future of Work 2021 Global Outlook Special Report, research conducted by global employment website Monster.com, things will keep looking up through the rest of 2021.
The pandemic and its repercussions hit recruiters particularly hard, putting some out of business and increasing demand on others. There was an immediate need and jolting shift toward virtual recruiting and onboarding for remote workforce teams, which forced recruiters and companies to think about their processes differently. Now, these digital methods are becoming normalized — and expected — as we move into the second half of the year.
According to data from a LinkedIn survey of over 1,500 recruitment professionals from 28 countries’ users, more companies are shifting talent attraction efforts to include remote candidates. Companies are also placing more emphasis on hiring from internal talent pools and boosting efforts to focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Forecasters are also predicting that there will be a flood of candidates in the market in the second half of 2021 due to the end of supplemental unemployment pay in many states. Hence, talent acquisition will play an even more impactful role within companies; the demands will be high and the need for efficiency, imperative. As life starts returning to normal, businesses will need to gear up — more people may re-enter the workforce in 2021 than in any other year in the history of the country.
How Employers Can Manage Higher Volumes
As we outlined, recruitment processes have and will continue to be very different; from interview to onboarding, employers are having to come up with out-of-the-box solutions. Here are some of the changes you can expect to see:
Increasing Technology
The job market is expected to be flooded with candidates across a variety of industries. For employers, that’s both good and bad news. Because of the diversity and breadth of the applicant pool, there will be many more options to find the best and most suitable candidates to join your company. However, because of this influx, recruiters will need to sift through many more unqualified or less-than-ideal candidate applications to find the diamonds. This requires time — and patience!
As a result, there is a need for companies to invest in technology to help streamline processes, especially for candidate screening and first-round interviews. Bayard offers an AI application-based software that acts as a screening process, directing candidates to different funnels based on their qualifications. In turn, this can help to optimize your talent management practices and convert 2x the number of qualified applicants. Using our expertise in recruitment marketing, we leverage the most advanced technologies to help you identify, recruit, and retain the full-time talent you need.
Virtual Recruiting
With the increased need to limit in-person meetings, virtual recruiting became essential during the pandemic. 70 percent of U.S. recruiters used virtual technology for at least 50% of their candidate interviewing and new hire onboarding, while another 35 percent said that at least 75% of recruiting practices were virtual. However, virtual recruiting was cited as the third biggest challenge facing employers in 2021, with respondents saying they expect to struggle with this type of hiring.
Prior to the pandemic, employers placed a great deal of value on in-person interviews. Now, employers must be able to assess candidates virtually. Even for businesses resuming in-person operations, virtual or automated interview processes will likely continue to replace the traditional way of hiring as they accelerate timelines, especially in periods of quick growth and limited bandwidth. Many employers are turning to recruitment marketing agencies to assist with customized strategies and data-driven solutions for hiring.
Emphasis on Employer Brand & Employee Experience
As we mentioned in our previous post, developing, recrafting, and marketing your employer brand will be essential in attracting the best candidates, who are also best suited for your place of work. Employees are not only looking for stability and long-term growth, but now more than ever, they are seeking companies that will accept and celebrate diversity. After a period out of work, when many candidates have had time to reflect on their personal and professional values, they are now assessing jobs based on the company’s culture, employee experience, and inclusion practices. More attention should be given to job descriptions and requirements, where arbitrary entry barriers should be removed.
Many companies are unintentionally incorporating bias into their hiring process, which is why it is important to use hiring data to analyze your current funnel and identify points of friction for diverse candidates with varying backgrounds and talents.
Many of the changes taking place in the workforce are positive, even though they can immediately appear as challenges; the new landscape will simply take some adjusting for everyone, both employers and potential employees. For questions about how to get your business back on track in regard to hiring and meeting recruitment goals, reach out to us here at Bayard; we customize solutions and implement best practices for each and every client to deliver results.
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