What you should know about hiring during COVID
No doubt, this pandemic is causing everyone to make adjustments—personally and professionally. The outbreak of COVID-19 has not only placed a hold on most life activities, it has also caused businesses to go bankrupt, and many people have also lost their jobs due to the temporary furlough or even permanent termination.
We will overcome this and a bit of normalcy would be restored, researchers are working to make sure that happens. While we wait for a cure or a vaccine, as an employer or someone who is looking to fill in one or two vacant positions, have you ever thought of how the job market is going to look like after all of this? Here is a potential future scenario that appears to be unfolding:
Unemployment would be at its highest rate, and invariably, the number of job seekers will likely increase as well.
Competition for employment will become very high and tougher than it used to be, as there will be thousands of people who will meet the minimum requirements.
Employers will have a tough time selecting the best candidates.
The best talent may want to work remotely due to fear of another possible outbreak.
Employers who might have seen the benefit of working remotely would likely want to keep it that way.
Job specification may change; health status of employees and future employees would be put into consideration as well.
The pandemic has caused a lot of changes, and even after it’s over, those changes will still have a long-lasting effect. In order to be successful you will need to change with the times. If you agree that a different and possibly more difficult path may lie ahead, think about how the hiring process is going to appear. If you have hired during the pandemic, you must have noticed the obvious change in the process. Instead of in-person interviews, video chats emerged, and factors like your potential employees remote work experience, and their level of discipline were put into consideration.
The pandemic is a new experience to us all, and helpful guidance is needed for hiring the most suitable employees from the massive number of job seekers available. That is exactly the purpose of this article; to guide you into making the right decision.
First of all, you have to have the answer to this question.
What made you think of hiring?
Was it because you lost a good talent of yours to the pandemic or you just want to take advantage of the times we are in to bring in top talents that can help you grow?
It is important you have the answer to that question before proceeding to read this guide. – Hiring Remotely
The world is going digital. We have Zoom, Skype, WhatsApp and so many other channels that keep springing up on regular basis. If the physical presence of your employees is not a factor that determines your company’s growth rate, then you should seriously consider hiring remote workers. As mentioned above, workers will be laid off, and the number of job seekers will increase. Think about this, some of those workers are highly talented people and they still have what it takes to grow your company to its maximum size, but due to daily commute might not be ideal to work for you. Hiring remotely would increase the number of people applying and equally increase the possibility of you hiring the best person for the job.
Here are some options you should consider to enjoy the benefits that remote hiring offers:
- Restructure your hiring process to accommodate remote applicants
- Create career pages that not only tell your potential employees about you, but would also get them to trust you enough to send in their applications.
- Put in place tools that make communication easier.
- Make provisions for assessment tools and methods that will help you evaluate and select the best candidate.
- Conducting Interviews
The change in conduct of interviews is apparent to everyone. During normal times, interviewing job seekers can be quite time consuming. Think of how harder it will get once this isolation period ends. It is important to mentally prepare in order to face this new challenge. Remote workers or not, the number of people you will be interviewing will increase. You have to be clear on what your needs are. It’s your company; tell job seekers exactly what your requirements are. Adopt an approach that will help you become a better interviewer, and ask vital questions that will not only help narrow down your choices, but also help you pick out the best candidates.
- Health and safety in office
If your employees are working 100% remotely, at some point you might need physical presence for it smooth running. You would need to consider the location of your office, and the safety of your employees when hiring.
Frankly, things are not going to be 100% normal like they used to be before the outbreak, so health and safety should be a priority.
- Current Status of US job market.
“…In the bust driven by the coronavirus, 4 million new graduates are now entering the worst jobs market since the Great Depression.”
4 million is a whopping amount. This takes us back to your reason for wanting to recruit and hire. If your reason for wanting to hire ‘one’ individual is for a replacement purpose, then you need to mentally prepare yourself to interview many people. Deciding on the right candidate will be a much more time-consuming task. You must embrace yourself to rise up to the new challenge of having to pick one or two persons out of a pool of job seekers.
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