How COVID-19 Will Change Recruiting and Hiring

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant ramifications across nearly every industry in the US and around the world. For recruiters, the national crisis is quickly changing how hiring entities attract candidates, organize the recruiting process, and retain their current hires. 

Current recruiting models and technology that have shaped modern recruiting were designed to lead to real-life interactions, not virtual ones. With the economy taking a blow, scaling significantly reduced, and millions of Americans losing their jobs, it’s up to recruiters to transform their processes and adapt to a post COVID-19 hiring market. 

From changing candidate pools to virtual interviews and onboarding, this article will outline how COVID-19 will change recruiting in the forthcoming weeks and months. 

How COVID-19 Is Changing Your Candidate Pool

One of the most immediate and noticeable changes in recruiting is how candidate pools have transformed under the pandemic. 

Not only are recruiters rescaling their capacity to reach out to candidates due to social distancing, but they’re pulling back on regional and international advertising and narrowing their recruiting capacities to local hiring markets. With travel being severely limited through much of the world, businesses have had to rely on local hiring as opposed to national or international recruiting. 

While this obviously limits a recruiter’s candidate pool, it’s also an opportunity for recruiters to get a closer look at their regional hiring pools and help their clients repurpose their internal staff and team members. 

Temporary bridge roles, training internal staff members, and looking to unnoticed pockets of local hiring markets are all ways companies and recruiters have adapted to hiring changes. 

What Virtual Recruiting Looks Like Under COVID-19 

Interviews, onboarding, staff meetings, and nearly every personal step of the hiring process has been reallocated to the virtual setting. Here’s how the pandemic has changed and is going to continue to change some of the most important steps in the hiring process.

• Virtual Interviews: Nearly all interviews have gone from the in-person setting to video platforms like SKype or Zoom. While it’s unclear how long strict social distancing guidelines will be in place, recruiters can expect virtual interviews to be the new norm until new guidelines are set in place. This means job seekers have to be more open and technologically available if they’re going to successfully reach out to potential hires. Scheduling phone interviews, arranging video calls, and providing potential hires with at least a few video platforms to choose from are all ways recruiters can make it easier to interview candidates. 
• Virtual Recruiting Events: Around this time of year, recruiters would be congregating to various college campuses across the nation to reach out to new, talented graduates. Needless to say, this is no longer an option. Both colleges and recruiters, however, are adapting. Career centers and job support services, like the DAV, are moving their job fairs to the online platform. It’s incumbent on recruiters to get in touch with these groups and become the organizations that reshape how virtual recruiting looks under COVID-19. 
• Onboarding New Hires: Onboarding has completely transformed under current social distancing restrictions. Most of the meetings, introductions, and more formal steps of the onboarding process have moved to the video and digital platform, with some companies utilizing technology to give virtual tours to their new hires. It’s important to remember that while onboarding is about relaying necessary information, it’s also about introducing new hires to the company culture. Your ability to onboard effectively will be limited, but how flexible, patient, and personable you are with your hires throughout this difficult transition can make all the difference when it comes to talent retention. 
• Utilizing AI to Adapt: Your candidate database, through your CRM+ATS, will be your go-to platform to track and understand the changing demographics in your hiring market. With so many people looking for jobs, it’s likely that a good percentage of passive candidates will become active and new roles will start opening as needs change within businesses. Reaching out to both clients and candidates and updating your databases will give you the most accurate information on who’s looking for work and in what areas they’re able to work in, allowing you to strategize and meet the fast-changing demands. 

The situation under COVID-19 is changing on a day-by-day and week-by-week basis. It’s important for recruiters to understand these changes if they’re going to succeed and adapt to a transforming market.

Loxo’s state-of-the-art technology will help your organization transition and meet the growing demands of a post COVID-19 recruiting world.

Our AI CRM+ATS platform gives recruiters all the tools they need to follow and track candidates, keep up with hiring needs from clients, and streamline the various steps that will allow you to identify viable candidate pools. Become the leaders that reshape what recruiting looks like under COVID-19 with Loxo today.