The pandemic has thrown our world into unchartered territory. The human resource department of every organization has been on the frontline, leading the efforts to facilitate employees. After the initial chaos of lockdown, remote working, and redefining processes they stepped up supported the employees to prioritize their mental and emotional wellbeing. Agility, flexibility, and creativity are the attributes demonstrated by HR during the chaos and with impacted hiring coupled with the acute economic crisis were unpleasant. Now the imperative to both adapt and move forward with revamped HR practices is furthermore essential.
The economy is on the road to recovery – companies are also looking to hire employees they have laid off a few months back.
The new normal will require organizations to reform their workforce strategies alongside evolving workforce dynamics. Having a large number of remote workforces will push organizations to ramp up technology adoption and digitalization, enable dispersed operations and collaborative functions. Some of the changes in HR practices are exciting in their potential for transformation. The changes that HR will lead would perhaps redefine the nature of the workplace permanently. Today, leaders are specifically looking for solutions catering to the paradigm shift which to new ways of working, changing job roles, and a turbulent recruitment marketplace to maneuver.
Workforce Blend: In the future with the popularity of contractual and freelancers will immensely grow and organizations will focus on a mix of permanent as well as GIG and contractual employees. Right sourcing channels will be brought forth to assess these talent pools.
Sourcing & Screening: Organizations have to source their online assessment tools to reduce dependencies on offline setups to assess talent.
Interviewing: Many businesses are ahead of the curve and started to use virtual technologies for interviewing, a critical step that enables fast and safe business continuity. In the future, most companies must follow and mark virtual interviewing a new normal.
Critical Roles: There is a fundamental shift in business operating models, the roles critical for the success of the business are changing and the hiring strategies need to be aligned to these changes and prioritize processes.
Digitization: The digitization of recruitment and enabling all aspects of it virtually enabled will be a key to smart hiring.
Less Stringent Biases: “Beggars can’t be choosers” the old saying will be the mantra for recruitment when the economy reopens full-fledged. With many open positions and fewer applicants, the biases of X n
umber of work experience, particular college/university degree, and the gap in career will no longer be valid.
Multitasked: The current crisis of COVID has put organizations on the alert mode in terms of talent. Emergencies require multi-talented people who can fill the shoes. In the future companies will prefer candidates with a diverse set of skills, so that they remain assets to the organization when things go wrong.
Candidate Onboarding: The conventional onboarding methods are eventually getting replaced by virtual onboarding and this will continue in the future.
Even though the COVID-19 crisis has upturned modern hiring, it’s a matter of time before things return to normal. Now organizations are concentrating on employee retention and engagement. The future of organizations post COVID will be revitalized and revamped HR practices with more agile recruitment which will help organizations to succeed. Long-term thinking, adjustment, and adopting the technology will be the markers for a recovery post COVID.
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Author – Moumita Ray
Moumita Ray is a human resource leader with rich experience in designing & developing strategies, processes, enhancing capabilities, and building culture to help businesses achieve its excellence.
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