Companies are turning to technology to minimize the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on productivity and provide business continuity during this time of uncertainty. While some managers have decided to freeze hiring until they understand the economic impact of the pandemic, many others are continuing to recruit in a bid to prevent a business slowdown.
Top companies are taking advantage of the short-term change in the talent market to secure in-demand talent for hard to fill positions and improve existing human resource (HR) processes. Online hiring tools are among the many changes organizations are adopting in the wake of the coronavirus.
Whether your company has put hiring on hold or continued to search for top talent, HR professionals should consider making changes in their human resources processes. If changes are not made to your HR processes now, your competition will have the upper hand sourcing quality talent when the market recovers.
Although we are in the midst of a digital revolution, many human resource processes are reliant on legacy systems and need to be modernized. To keep candidates in your hiring funnel engaged during these challenging times, HR professionals should leverage tech tools, like video interviewing platforms and online skills tests and continue to build and maintain a candidate pool. Implementing new tools now that can be quickly scaled up when hiring resumes will prevent companies from losing out on top talent in the future.
During these uncertain times, technology solutions can improve the bottom line when implemented strategically. To boost efficiency levels, 96% of HR professionals prefer automation to outsourcing operations. In an attempt to cut costs, companies should strategically analyze outsourcing practices, such as recruitment and candidate screening, and leverage technology to successfully move those services in-house.
COVID-19 Pushes Employers to Implement New Human Resource Processes
Employers who are still hiring are adapting HR processes to maintain a safe distance while finding new talent. Amazon, Google, and Facebook were among the first companies to announce a move to online job interviews as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
Following suit with the tech giants, on March 23rd, CVS announced plans to begin “the most ambitious hiring drive in the company’s history” and rapidly hire 50,000 employees to staff stores nationwide using a “technology-enabled” hiring process. To achieve the necessary speed and scale, CVS is using asynchronous video interviews.
Asynchronous video interviews are one-way interviews in which the job seeker records responses to a predetermined set of questions for the hiring teams to evaluate. These pre-recorded interviews allow organizations to circumvent scheduling conflicts and make the hiring process faster and more convenient.
Beyond speed and scale, pre-recorded interviews reduce bias by providing structured, consistent interviews, and scoring procedures across all applicants, which is not possible with two-way interviews, whether video or face-to-face. There is no opportunity in an automated, pre-configured video interview to ask job seekers different questions that could stem from personal, unconscious bias.
eSkill’s video interviewing platform standardizes the interview process and increases collaboration amongst hiring teams, reducing bias. Top companies turn to eSkill’s advanced video interview software built specifically for the HR process. eSkill offers more advanced features such as integration with applicant tracking systems, automatic scheduling, team scoring, and customizable skill testing. eSkill’s software enables employers to define and structure the interview process clearly and eliminate any deviation. An HR administrator selects in-house reviewers and creates scoring guidelines to evaluate candidate responses consistently.
Leverage Skills Tests to Rethink Workforce Roles
HR professionals across industries such as hospitality, manufacturing, and tourism are faced with a new challenge amid the coronavirus outbreak. They are not able to hire now but do not want to lose top candidates to competitors. Those that are not willing to surrender to a global pandemic must consider innovative approaches to keep promising talent engaged until hiring resumes.
In the interim, company stakeholders must allow and even encourage short-term variability in the types of employment and contractor work they offer. eSkill’s innovative platform makes it easy to use skills tests to match candidates with short-term projects and work opportunities. With automation and predictive analytics, identifying candidates’ proficiency levels in a wide range of skills is efficient and effective. They can leverage the results to engage top talent and take advantage of the increased flexibility the gig economy offers. Based on the results of skills tests, employers can select candidates to complete or contribute to projects or perform a specific set of tasks for several departments as independent contractors until hiring resumes.
While this approach can be used to keep qualified candidates interested in future long-term employment, it can also be used to evaluate your existing workforces’ skills and develop an internal talent marketplace. The advantages are potentially transformational, enabling more agile, lean, and adaptive workplaces. Skills tests allow for a more sophisticated and granular tracking of skills, competencies, knowledge, behavioral characteristics, and cognitive abilities of individual workers. In turn, the data gathered from administering internal skills tests enables organizations to have a more thorough and pragmatic view of their workforce.
As the impact of the coronavirus continues to change the business landscape, organizations must rapidly adapt to meet the market needs. While we navigate the changes and take precautions, leveraging technology and making quick decisions can help us maintain and improve some of our best human resource processes in securing hard-to-find talent.
Learn more about the benefits of using eSkill’s skills tests, behavioral assessments, and video interviewing platform to find qualified candidates quickly.
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