Talent Acquisition trends are often difficult to predict – and this unpredictability is certainly elevated during a global pandemic. Despite the ever-evolving nature of the trends, understanding and positioning yourself as an organization during their development is key in being able to retain and attract top talent.
When we think about the cause and effect of COVID-19 on the financial market, we’re quick to recognize some of the downside. Yet, as Forbes Magazine notes “the picture is not all doom and gloom. For [companies] who are well-positioned – and sufficiently capitalized – for long-term growth, there has never been a better time to hire. Not for a long time have we seen such a ‘buyer’s market’ for talent globally.”
As we look at the identified trends below, we’ll also take a deeper dive in to how Protiviti is addressing these through our recruitment approach.
Finding the Opportunity in Remote Work
The current pandemic has expanded the talent pool to extend beyond the hills of Silicon Valley, outside of the Big Apple, and beyond the lands that have been dubbed as talent pools for world-class companies. With the global pandemic, there has been a dramatic acceleration and many successes in navigating work-from-home arrangements. With this, we’ve seen the benefit of global talent pool access.
Protiviti on the Trend: CEO, Joe Tarantino, has continuously emphasized a global approach, where our organization operates together as one team. Not only is this approach effective in creating global camaraderie during these trying times, but it also encourages a working methodology that affords employees the opportunity to partner with colleagues across offices and to experience client work they may not have traditionally served due to logistical constraints. This is an exciting time for employees who are looking for depth of opportunity – and it also provides Talent Management with a larger and more diverse pool of qualified candidates for staffing (that’s what we call a win-win!). This inclusive approach allows us moraccess to build teams with diverse experiences and backgrounds that best serve our clients.
Enhance & Redesign to Close Talent Gaps
A study conducted by Gartner revealed about 90% of the S&P 100 recruit competitively for the same 39 roles, and 30% of critical roles remain vacant after five months. Such data suggests organizations should consider additional means of closing talent gaps beyond simply using legacy recruiting or training approaches.
Protiviti on the Trend: Protiviti’s Recruiting Team has used 2020 as an opportunity to enhance our interview process to better evaluate talent against a common set of interview topics. We recognize that time is a precious commodity. Our goal is to significantly close obvious talent gaps that we have seen historically in the market and better position our candidates for a meaningful interview experience, aligned with their career goals.
For our tenured Protiviti practice professionals, we remain committed to further education and growth opportunities. Through Protiviti’s Learning & Development team, who has worked hard to redesign virtual trainings during the pandemic, we’ve also gained access to a number of tools that make further educating possible. Those tools in combination with design thinking workshops, Protiviti’s certification reimbursement benefit, and on-going trainings at each level to name a few, gives our employees a means to drive their own career forward.
Enrich Your Approach to Recruiting a Diverse Workforce
Workplace diversity matters now more than ever before. This is something we know to be true! With a multigenerational workforce in full swing, candidates proactively seek out companies that allow them to bring their authentic self to work and celebrate our unique backgrounds and experiences. Companies who are intentional about building an inclusive workforce and welcoming diversity into the organization understand that it is a commitment to consistently shift company behaviors, processes, and policies. The modern-day job seeker can quickly recognize if a company’s diversity and inclusion (D&I) efforts are disingenuous.
Protiviti on the Trend: At Protiviti, we lead with our values of integrity, inclusion and innovation. Integrity empowers us to do the right thing and be transparent, inclusion provides us with different perspectives and moves us forward together, and innovation enables us to embrace change and not settle for the status quo. We are honored to have received a number of accolades related to the efforts driven by our Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) initiatives. From our women’s network, iGROWW, to proPRIDE, GET IT, Multicultural Network and leadership champions around the world we have worked together to build and nurture an environment where our employees feel empowered to bring their whole selves to work. This exact verbiage is actually articulated in the first paragraph of each of our job descriptions!
We are utilizing our talent tools to understand our current metrics and how we can engage an even more diverse workforce. As a recruiting team, we are rolling out diversity workshops for our business participants and from a campus-recruiting perspective, we are expanding our university outreach and continuing to build relationships with diversity-focused networking groups! The Experienced Hire Team has taken this time to revamp our processes to attract a diverse pipeline whether its job descriptions, interview curriculums, and managing our referral process during these unprecedented times.
Modifying the Interview Process for a Remote World
According to CNBC, many companies have immediately adapted their artificial intelligence-driven video interview tools to be more empathetic and more contextually aware than they were pre-COVID. Other firms have set- up what is being referred to as ‘video handshakes,’ which are more focused on discovering what people can be and become, rather than what they do and have done previously in their career.
Protiviti on the Trend: The quick implementation of Microsoft Teams during the height of the pandemic, has provided both recruiters and interviewers the ability to maintain the genuine essence of the interview process, particularly through video capabilities. Positive candidate feedback has helped us to know that this process has been appreciated and that the technology has aided in making for a meaningful interview experience. Equally as important, it makes for an easier interviewer experience. In turn, this helps to retain your current employees and build their enthusiasm during the recruiting process! Instead of being hindered by travel restraints pre-COVID and having limited availability to setup office interviews due to hectic schedules, candidates and Protiviti professionals can “meet” in the comfort of their homes and not worry about being late due to traffic or other circumstances out of their control. Those that have participated in interviews during the pandemic have commented that they are able to spend more time really getting to know candidates due to the ease of the remote interview process.
Over-communicate, Be Transparent, Be Proactive
The pandemic sidelined the world and left millions unemployed and most of the population under stay-at-home orders. It is important for everyone in every organization, but especially Human Resources and Talent Acquisition professionals, to over-communicate, be transparent and be proactive. As the ones who are supporting the individuals being impacted by workforce decisions, there is a heightened importance to do so.
Protiviti on the Trend: Right before the pandemic, Protiviti was hiring rapidly given our strong position with clients and high demand for our skillsets. When the world quickly saw change due to COVID-19, our role as recruiters shifted – more than ever, we embraced empathy in our approach, comforting candidates and ensuring our incoming new hires the experience they were promised (even if that looked a bit different!). As an organization, we were able to honor our offers and start dates. We worked together to adapt and evolve our processes with intention for longevity. To us, this wasn’t about a “quick fix”, it was about our candidates and employees and the everlasting experience we want them to have. We were honest with our processes and gave real-time updates to our candidates. Now more than ever, there is an obvious need for transparent and empathetic discussions and that has remained top of mind for us at Protiviti.
2020 has been a year of change – and navigating change can be difficult. We’re so proud of how our team at Protiviti has worked to adapt and evolve, together! We look forward to tackling any of the challenges 2021 has to bring – and more importantly, we can’t wait to meet more individuals!
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