Covid-19 devastated the economy with its back to back blows. The epidemic compelled many businesses and companies to incorporate new ways of doing business and completely revamping their operations. In 2021, we can see that these changes have brought virtual recruitment, flexibility, and diversity in organizations.

While overcoming the challenges was difficult, it has shaped how things work today and will continue working in the near future. Here are four ways the pandemic has shaped the recruitment trends in 2021:

The Effective Use Of Technology In Recruitment

One thing is for sure that virtual recruitment procedures are here to stay. In 2021, more companies than ever are relying on virtual recruitment platforms and online interviewing tools for their talent acquisition. Research showed, "96% of TA leaders say that virtual recruiting is here to stay, even beyond the point at which, in person, is feasible once again.”

Companies are also following hybrid recruitment procedures and it is gaining more popularity day by day. The use of technology in talent acquisition brings the companies ease and convenience in their hiring tasks and saves time and costs at the same time. It is very convenient for the candidates as well.

The Location does Not restrict prospective Employees.

In 2021, companies are looking for people with diverse cultural backgrounds and ethnicities. As remote working experience is an option, the geographical locations of these personnel isn’t an issue either. The companies aim to achieve greater social justice by incorporating diversity, inclusivity, and equity in their recruitment drives.

ACCORDING TO A GARTNER STUDY, after COVID-19 was labelled as a pandemic, 88% of firms globally made it necessary or encouraged their workers to work from home. Remote working and work-from-home have been an option for employees in most companies ever since. This independence allows businesses to look for highly qualified employees anywhere and are not confined by geographical boundaries.

A Change In The Way Job Descriptions Are Written

As job descriptions are being taken to social media platforms for recruitment purposes, there's a change in their writing. These job descriptions are being extra specific and detailed to target people on a particular social media platform. Glassdoor states that 79% of job seekers use social media when conducting their job search.

Businesses are also looking for candidates with more remarkable qualifications as they expand the skills they are looking for. Since geographical constraints aren't a problem anymore due to remote working environments, the idea of a talent pool consisting of highly qualified professionals isn't so far-fetched now.

Greater Internal Hiring

Since there was a high rate of unemployment during the pandemic, companies had to hire people internally. Internal mobility became a thing back then, and now in 2021, companies are still hiring people internally. In fact, according to LinkedIn data, there was an increase of 20% in internal mobility since the pandemic kicked in.

Internal mobility gives companies the benefits of greater employee engagement, low costs in hiring, and a much shorter hiring process. A greater employee engagement means that there is also a greater retention rate for these employees.

Additional Resources on "4 Ways The Pandemic Molded The Recruitment Trends In 2021"

• The Next Great Disruption Is Hybrid Work Are We Ready? - Exclusive research and expert insights into a year of work like no other reveal urgent lessons for leaders as hybrid work unfolds. (microsoft.com)
• How Will The Recruitment Game Change In 2021? (recruitcrm.io)
• 9 Work Trends That HR Leaders Can't Ignore in 2021 - Transformative work trends will challenge HR leaders in 2021 as a new prism emerges on employee experience, gender pay gap, radical flexibility in workforce models, social issues and more. (gartner.com)
• Retail Recruiting In 2021: What's Changed? - Retail Recruiting In 2021: What’s Changed And What It Means For Talent Acquisition (gr8people.com)
• Council Post: How To Prepare Now For Post-Pandemic Employee Turnover - Use this time of reshuffling to shore up your communications infrastructure, brand values and company culture. (forbes.com)
• Top 5 Healthcare Staffing and Recruiting Trends of 2021 - Hiring - Know the most probable staffing and healthcare trends in 2021 for success. (irionline.com)
• The new possible: How HR can help build the organization of the future - The pandemic underscores the urgency for a more dynamic talent and work model. Human-resources leaders can help by focusing on identity, agility, and scalability. (mckinsey.com)

Related Statistics

• Well-being was the top-ranked trend for importance in the study, with 80% of nearly 9,000 survey respondents identifying it as important or very important to their organization's success. (www2.deloitte.com)
• HR executives were slightly more deliberate than non-HR executives about focusing on well-being as an important outcome of work transformation, with 20% of HR executives selecting it as a priority compared to 15% of non-HR executives. (www2.deloitte.com)
• Further, 41% of executives said that building workforce capability through upskilling, reskilling, and mobility is one of the most important actions they are taking to transform work. (www2.deloitte.com)
• Yet only 17% say their workers are very ready to adapt, reskill, and assume new roles. (www2.deloitte.com)
• Workers themselves recognize the imperative to change as well, with 60% of the 10,000 workers in this year's Voice of the European Workforce study identifying “capacity to adapt” as the most relevant skill they will need to thrive in the labor market. (www2.deloitte.com)
• Research shows that organizations with above-average diversity produced a greater proportion of revenue from innovation (45% of total) than those with below-average diversity (26%), which translated into stronger overall financial performance. (www2.deloitte.com)
• Ninety-seven percent of respondents stated that they need additional information on some aspect of their workforce. (www2.deloitte.com)
• Only 11% of organizations said they were able to produce information on their workforce in real time a statistic that was staggering even before organizations were forced to make a series of immediate pandemic-driven decisions about their workforce. (www2.deloitte.com)
• Seventeen percent of executives said that their organizations would focus on unlikely, high-impact events moving forward, as opposed to 6% before the pandemic. (www2.deloitte.com)
• And 47% said that their organizations planned to focus on multiple scenarios in the future, up from 23% before the pandemic. (www2.deloitte.com)