There is no denying or ignoring the monumental impact the pandemic has had on businesses and employees all over the world. Companies all over the country and the rest of the globe have faced the most difficult period in their existence during the economic downturn that has come about because of COVID-19, with several facing the terminal fate of closing down indefinitely. 

Individuals also hit the panic button as more and more people were getting made redundant on a daily basis. Let’s take a look at some of the key statistics:

  • Hundreds of millions of people around the world have been left unemployed due to the pandemic.
  • In Japan, 1.76 million have been left jobless.
  • In the United States, 30 million people are now without jobs.
  • The International Labour Organization for the UN believes 1.6 billion informal economic workers will suffer monumental damage to their livelihoods. 

Nonetheless, as we are now fully ingrained in 2021, and looking to the year ahead, it seems that there is some hope that we can put this behind us thanks to the rollout of the vaccination. The panic is still there for a lot of companies, but it is dropping for some businesses, as they have found ways to cope with the fresh challenges that came their way. Therefore, let’s take a look at the changes to recruitment that have arisen as a result of the economic downturn…

So, let’s begin by looking at existing employees. Even those individuals who kept their jobs have had to face the fact that working life after the pandemic is certainly different. This is something that has had both a negative and a positive impact. The major negative is undoubtedly the fact that a lot of businesses have had to lower existing salaries. An array of companies have assessed their existing workforce and redeployed a lot of staff members as well. Nonetheless, employees have reaped the benefits of an increased chance of progressing to a higher position in their company. Research shows that employers are in favor of promoting in-house rather than look for an employee elsewhere. 

In addition to this, remote workers and freelancers are becoming more commonly utilized nowadays. A lot of businesses have gone completely remote due to the pandemic, and they intend to stay that way. If this applies to you, you can easily run your business from home while investing in an office address for your company so that you have a prestigious and professional location, and somewhere for your mail to be sent to.

Companies aren’t hiring as much as they once were, yet they still have work that needs to be done. They can get better value for money via utilizing the services of a remote worker and they need not worry about providing them with an office space or any equipment. This isn’t the only type of work that is flourishing. 

Temporary positions and zero-hour contracts are on the rise too. Companies are hiring temporary workers in order to protect themselves from fluctuations in demand. They can hire a worker or a group of workers for a set period of time, then re-hire them again if need be rather than committing to a full-time contract. This is particularly common in manufacturing industries. On the other hand, zero-hour contracts are those that create an ‘on-call’ agreement between the employer and the employee. In essence, this means no minimum hours of work are outlined rather the employee will be called upon as and when required. This type of contract offers businesses a cost-effective solution to meeting short term staffing needs. 

And finally, the recession has also meant that businesses have had to cut their training budgets significantly. In fact, over half of companies say the recession has impacted their ability to provide training. This means that the onus is one the individual to enhance their own skillset rather than expecting to go into a job and receive extensive training. 

The recurring effects of the pandemic have definitely had an impact on recruitment. We are seeing more flexible contracts and methods of employment. Not only this, but employers are turning to in-house promotions meaning individuals can look for greater opportunities to move up the career ladder within their company. 

It is likely that we are going to see more changes as time goes on, but hopefully, we can all come out of the other end of this worrying time in 2021 and start to look at how our businesses can flourish.