COVID Impact on Hiring Decisions

COVID-19 has made several companies in the United States decide to put “recruitment on hold,” while those still recruiting are leveraging online interviews to decide on the candidates to hire. 60% of United States employers chose to cut down on hiring as of March 2020 due to coronavirus.

The Decision to Put Recruitment on Hold or Lay Off Employees

• To start with, COVID-19 has altered the hiring needs of several companies. However, it has affected different industries in different ways. Most sectors or industries have decided to hire fewer people, although the demand for new employees has soared in some.
• About 60% of employers had decided to reduce hiring as of March 2020 due to coronavirus.
• Instead of hiring new staff, many companies have decided to freeze their hiring process because the future seems unpredictable, while some have decided to “fire their employees.”
• The decision to hire less has pushed the unemployment rate in three months of COVID-19 to levels severe than the unemployment rate associated with the two years related to the Great Recession. The decision to hire less or fire some employees pushed the United States unemployment rates to reach 14.7% (an all-time high value) in April 2020.
• Glassdoor job openings decreased by 20.5% between 9th March and 6th April, reducing employment opportunities to barely 4.8 million. According to Glassdoor, this figure marks the lowest number of job openings advertised on its platform since February 2017.
• After about six months of adapting to the COVID-19 pandemic, several organizations have decided to take cost-reduction actions such as restructurings and layoffs. Some companies have successfully reduced the salaries and wages of their employees.
• In June 2020, Bloomberg published that the next wave of job cuts in the United States would target millions of highly-paid workers, with about 6 million jobs at risk.

Hiring Decisions Based on Online Interview

• A United States-based publication reveals that 86% of organizations are now leveraging virtual (online) interviews to make hiring decisions on their candidates of choice due to the coronavirus pandemic.

• The recent coronavirus crisis has motivated businesses to implement more significant large-scale virtual interviewing and recruiting efforts. Experts suggest that human resource managers need to partner with recruiting leaders to utilize new recruiting technology for a positive candidate experience.
• About 85% of organizations are already utilizing new technologies to onboard their employees.
• A significantly higher number of organizations are already conducting interviews online (remotely) due to the coronavirus pandemic. Virtual interviewing is likely to become the newest standard for recruiting candidates and leaders to fill various positions after the imposition of social distancing guidelines.

• Several successful organizations now provide candidates with a similar level of information and a feeling of physical connection via remote platforms. The feeling these organizations deliver via online media is close to or identical to what is obtainable for an in-person onboarding experience or interview process.
• Webinars are becoming commonplace for recruitment for multiple reasons. For starters, Webinars are the most suitable alternative for in-person recruitment events. Secondly, with several businesses struggling to stay active with the fast-changing economy, webinars deliver an excellent platform to share knowledge with individuals who need it.

Decision To Hire More Remote Staff

• According to USA Today, more companies have decided to allow new hires to work remotely amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Glassdoor experienced a 10.8% drop in the number of remote job openings as of March 2020. However, hiring statistics for remote workers was still higher by 8.7% compared to the same period last year.
• United States companies are doing more than allowing local employees to work from their homes. They are also hiring new employees all over the country and beyond. These companies wish to let their employees work remotely for a long time.
• The remote employee work trend leads to a larger supply of top job candidates for companies (employers). It is also giving rise to more lifestyle options and openings for workers. Many of these new hires are reluctant to relocate to a different state or city because of challenges associated with relocation (like disrupting a child’s schooling or a spouse’s career).
• Recent findings credited to Talent without borders reveals that 36% of employers are willing to hire 100% of their new staff from remote workers living anywhere within the United States or internationally. Barely 12% of employers were receptive to the above approach before the COVID-19 pandemic. These statistics mean that companies are three times more willing to hire a remote worker due to the impact of COVID-19.
• According to PR Newswire (a New York-based company), companies are more willing to hire remote workers following the outbreak of COVID-19. Only 52% of companies were ready to hire remote workers before COVID-19 compared to 88% now. However, several employers still prefer that their employees live within a commutable distance from their office location.