Five post-COVID recruitment trends to watch out for in 2021

The coronavirus pandemic flipped priorities for many industries upside down, including recruitment. But now that a very difficult 2020 is behind us and there’s a faint glimmer of normality on the horizon, what’s next for recruitment?

Let’s look ahead to the second half of 2021, at the recruitment industry trends we can expect to see:

1. Faster candidate screening processes

Employers need to hire faster, to fill a lot of vacant positions as post-COVID recovery kicks in. But to keep quality standards high and find the right fit, skills testing will be a vital tool. According to research by Toggl Hire, only 40% of recruiters and employers are properly tooled up to carry out skills testing for high volumes of applicants. This will need to change in order to keep up with hiring demand.

2. Delivering a better candidate experience

While juggling the challenge of screening and hiring faster, employers also need to deliver a better experience for candidates. Research found that 60% of candidates now expect fast feedback on their application status. Recruiters will need to be transparent about hiring timelines, and build feedback into their processes.

3. Smoother onboarding of remote hires

Remote working is likely to stick around in some form after the worst of the pandemic is over. But around 60% of employers are worried about onboarding, and will need to make adjustments to their usual processes.

Experts recommend:

• Overcommunicating to manage candidate expectations
• Making use of feedback from former and recently onboarded hires
• Documenting everything as you go along, to start creating a knowledge base.

Another point of concern with remote working is finding the right people. Employers are increasingly looking for people with strong communication skills and lots of self-discipline, as these are the employees who thrive under remote working conditions.

Understandably, at the very bottom of the list of sought-after traits for remote workers are – poor time management, poor communication and lack of motivation.

4. Automation to filter underqualified applicants

With a lot of people searching for jobs post-pandemic, businesses may struggle to sift large volumes of applications. This is especially difficult when many applicants are underqualified. Automation and recruitment tools can ease the burden for some of these processes, as well as making candidate evaluation more consistent across the board.

5. New must-have recruitment tools

First on the list of tools that employers can’t live without – great quality online video conferencing software. This is no surprise considering the huge uptake in remote meetings and interviews which took place during the pandemic.

But according to Toggl hire, employers are also relying heavily on tools such as the talent acquisition platform Recruitee and customer service software Help Scout at the moment. Much in demand are tools that can help with skills testing for specific job roles, including a tool to assess IT skills.

Need expert recruitment support, to help your business find the right people to support post-pandemic recovery? Get in touch with RGH today.