With the unparalleled crisis of the Covid-19 still in play, it has hit our economy hard. The outbreak resulted in putting a vast number of professionals out of their jobs and businesses. On one hand, many enterprises had no choice but to freeze their hiring processes, furlough, or even let go of employees. These industries mainly included hospitality, tourism and travel, restaurants, IT, entertainment, and more. On the other hand, certain industries such as healthcare and e-commerce experienced a sudden hike in the need to hire new employees.
In these unprecedented times, business verticals need to undertake appropriate measures to recruit new employees safely and effectively. In this article, let's take a look at some of the major challenges faced by recruiters during the pandemic. Consequently, we'll discuss how recruitments and employee background verification are conducted in the post-pandemic era.
Major Hiring Challenges Due To The Covid-19 Crisis
Mass Layoffs
One of the many repercussions of the pandemic is that companies ran short of business, finances, and resources. Most of the companies, especially the SMBs had no choice but to let a major portion of their employees leave the job. Only a small fraction of employees were retained to carry out the business ventures. Some small and medium-sized businesses, that could sustain the resources they had, didn't fire their workforce. However, they had to freeze their hiring processes as long as no clear picture came out.
Mass Recruitments
While some sectors had to face major cut downs, some others experienced a rapid rise in labor demand. It includes retails, e-commerce markets, supermarkets, healthcare, and sanitation department, online learning facilitators, and more. With the lockdown in play and health threats imposed by the pandemic, hiring was as difficult as carrying out the jobs assigned.
Onboarding Process
Another major issue during the pandemic was the onboarding process of recruits. Candidates willing to join were offered jobs, but the recruiters weren't prepared for the crisis. They didn't have enough resources to facilitate the remote onboarding of the new employees. Some companies had to keep these recruitments on hold while some others went on with remote onboarding processes. It meant additional tasks for the HR department in ensuring a regular and smooth onboarding of new employees.
Read more: Background Verification During Covid-19 | Challenges And Initiatives
