Dive Brief:
- Pandemic-driven hiring freezes have shaken up recruiting responsibilities for many HR professionals, according to the Aug. 4 results of a Lever survey.
- Slightly more than half of respondents — 709 talent and HR decisionmakers in the U.S. and Canada — said they're navigating other COVID-related HR tasks, such as administering paid leave. Slightly fewer said they're assisting other departments.
- After that, recruiters reported cleaning recruiting data (41%), rethinking recruiting processes (37%) and engaging more with employees (35%).
Dive Insight:
As the novel coronavirus spread in the U.S., a Willis Tower Watson report revealed that hiring freezes and slowdowns were employers' most common cost control method. Others, however, found themselves on hiring sprees. Employers like CVS and Papa John's, for example, have been hiring tens of thousands of workers to keep up with the increased demand for delivery. CVS aimed to onboard 50,000 new workers in a matter of weeks, while Papa John's reported a short-term goal of 30,000.
Those recruiting professionals still focused on talent acquisition — whether dealing with mass-scale hiring or a reduced workload — have had to rethink many processes, as Lever noted. From virtual career fairs to remote Form I-9 document review, the entire recruiting life cycle now requires creative solutions.
Those shifts have raised questions about an employer's ability to assess candidates, but others say it has leveled the playing field. Many changes driven by the pandemic have made the process more accessible to job applicants with disabilities, for example, sources previously told HR Dive.
And many of these adjustments may be here to stay. Recruiting automation, for example, has seen accelerated adoption, and recruiting professionals are unlikely to turn back after COVID-19 subsides:. "[The pandemic] is going to change the way we hire for good," Mike Hudy, chief science officer at Modern Hire, previously told HR Dive.
