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Written by Sophie Meaney, Managing Director, Consulting Solutions & Strategic Development at Amberjack
It has now been 8 weeks since the UK entered lockdown. At that point we had no idea of how this global pandemic would impact our lives.
My advice at the time to our clients and the wider industry was to be Bold, to embrace Digital and be courageous. Now was not the time to play it safe.
So, what has happened in the past 2 months? In terms of Digital Transformation, McKinsey have reported 70% of executives across Europe think that the pandemic is likely to accelerate the pace of digital transformation – the luxury of time has disappeared. And recruitment is no different. Some of the UK’s largest organisations have virtualised their entire process, including EY, who recognised that cancelling their assessment centres could negatively impact candidates and the future success of their business. Using Amberjack’s digital assessment platform Impact, they moved to a completely online assessment centre solution. You can read more about their experience here.
It’s clear that we still face an enormous amount of uncertainty. Job vacancies posted online throughout March and April have dropped 50% and most recent research from the student industry body, ISE highlighted that 40% of organisations are still unsure of how their apprentice and graduate intakes will be affected. What is clear – the majority will still be actively looking to hire, albeit in lower numbers and with reduced budgets.
These are worrying statistics, however I do believe there are ways we can better navigate these challenging times:
Doing more with Less – At Amberjack we define efficiencies as ‘achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense’. In the world of recruitment this can be measured by the time it takes for candidates to progress, savings made or the resource to create the process. Now more than ever, there will be lens on how systems and processes will bring maximum efficiencies so explore how you might be able to implement changes.
Virtual is here to stay… for now – Like it or not, virtual recruiting is likely to be here for some time, most certainly for the foreseeable future. Some organisations were forced to adopt new digital solutions immediately in order to meet their hiring demand which in turn have bought some unexpected benefits. There has never been a better time to build a strong business case to trial new technologies.
Don’t forget the hygiene factors – A recent report by @TaLint reported that Candidate Experience was still the most urgent and important challenge to address even in these challenging times. In addition, McKinsey have reported, organisations who continue to focus on building a diverse workforce, are now more likely to outperform less diverse peers on profitability. We mustn’t lose focus on what makes our recruitment experiences best in class.
I genuinely believe there are opportunities everywhere if we look for them which gives us hope that from this crisis, we could emerge stronger – if we are brave.
If you would like to find out more about Amberjack could support your business please feel free to contact us.
