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Trends of 2021: Quality Over Speed

Hatty Blue

When Covid struck, many businesses went into self-preservation mode with their current employees and their recruitment.

The furlough scheme saw mass temporary working shifts on a scale like never before. Some organisations needed new employees – fast – while others made the difficult decision to downsize or furlough their teams.

A movement is happening now in recruitment. Businesses understand the value of spending a little longer to find the 'right' candidate, rather than hiring fast to fill a vacancy.

You might think that this is always the case in recruitment, but sadly, the 'wrong' hire is made when time pressures begin to mount.

Over the past year, businesses have become acutely aware of how valuable some team members have become. This could be the marketing specialist who has stepped up to help solve tech problems remotely or the newly promoted manager who has gone over and above their job spec to ensure smooth running during stressful times.

I am sure you will have members of your team in mind who has taken the past year's challenges as an opportunity to step up – these are the types of people you want to replicate and single-out with your recruitment process.

This isn't to say that recruitment needs to take longer to produce the best results, it's that recruitment now needs to be focused and specific to meet your business's growing needs.

For this, your company will need to re-evaluate your mission and vision to be clear on the direction you want to go. Then you should revisit your job roles – both the positions you currently have and the new talent you require to drive your organisation forward.

A recent report on the state of recruitment post-Covid, U.S. venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz referred to the recruitment taking place now as 'the Great Rehiring'. This phrase is symbolic of the significant recruitment movement that will be happening at many levels in the coming months.

During the pandemic, millions of employees were furloughed, while others were made redundant. Some individuals who weathered the storm with their current employer are thinking about switching jobs – the pandemic has been the catalyst for movement at every level.

While the increased talent pool is excellent news for employers looking to hire, it presents a dichotomy. Many hiring managers struggle with the influx of candidates and the logistical nightmare of finding the right candidate among hundreds – sometimes thousands – of applicants.

This is why it's so essential to have a recruitment strategy in place to ensure that you are identifying the right talent for your organisation, and therefore not making rushed or wrong hiring decisions.

Consider the following steps to improve the quality of your recruitment process:

Define Your Roles - Use a variety of sources to create your post-Covid job descriptions. Speak to employees and review if roles have changed over the last year and how; you might need to create a job specification that is now different from the one you had in mind.

Think About Culture - A significant part of hiring a quality candidate who will do well in your organisation is finding an individual with the right cultural fit. The pandemic has changed the very nature of many organisation's cultures, so this might need a revisit, too. If your team are now working remotely, what implications does this have in terms of company culture, and how will your new employee adapt.

Attracting the Right Candidates - Now is the time to hone your talent attraction strategies with the support of a recruitment partner. More than ever, you must carefully monitor your talent pipeline and your network to ensure you are staying competitive.

Your employer branding, marketing materials and job descriptions should exude the message you are the employer in your sector or geographical area that top talent would want to join.

Managing the Recruitment Process - Having a manageable recruitment process is one of the key elements of successful hiring.

Be aware of unconscious bias, leading to poor recruiting decisions - reassess your interview questions, panel, and style.

There is a lot to consider when updating your recruitment process for our post-Covid world. If you would like to speak to an expert about updating your recruitment process, get in touch with us at Hatty Blue to support your journey.

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