Irish market update: How businesses are managing recruitment during covid-19

The market is changing every day at the moment and the same questions are being asked by all of our clients: What’s happening in the market? What are other companies doing in relation to recruitment? What have we, at RECRUITERS, experienced in the current market? Is there any information RECRUITERS can share?

 

To help with these questions, I’ve put together a few quick points and happy to talk to you directly about these and expand further at any time. I'm one of the senior managers at RECRUITERS and I'm available for a no-obligation, cost-free consultation to help employers through the current situation. Simply schedule a call, email me (patricia.lynch@recruiters.ie) or call me directly on 01 6325044.

 

In a nutshell, most companies have paused or drastically slowed down their recruitment with many focusing on business-critical roles only. Some are reviewing, on a daily basis, their current workforce and their workflows to determine how best to retain all of their staff. Unfortunately, for many, this simply isn't possible. For these companies, we are supporting them in any way we can with Government and market information in addition to offering them a free service that will assist those they can no longer employ with help to get them back on the market, fast. 

 

The majority of SMEs across all sectors are taking a more cautious route to permanent hiring at the moment and are opting for different options such as: delaying start dates and/or prolonging the interview process or pausing positions entirely. The most important thing here is to communicate with all your candidates in the process. Once people know what is happening, they can act/prepare themselves accordingly and will appreciate being kept updated. Communication is key!

 

Many are grappling with remote working (productively!) or the idea of interviewing and onboarding new employees remotely. This is a great article on how to conduct a video interview to ensure the best remote hiring. 

 

In relation to remote onboarding, employers are worried about the impact this might have on their employee’s experience and first impressions, their employer brand, company culture and values. The important thing to remember for these companies, is that everyone understands the current difficulties HR managers and hiring managers are facing with doing this and new starters will be mindful of the current circumstances, appreciating that everyone is doing the very best they can. Here is a really helpful infographic you can download on how to onboard new staff remotely. 

 

If employers approach remote interviewing and onboarding correctly, there is no to be worried about it or let it be a blocker to progressing with interviewing and onboarding your new team member. Good people are still at the heart of all good organisations and you never want to let good talent slip away (where possible). 

 

There are of course many businesses within the technology, FMCG, banking, insurance and healthcare sectors that are business as usual with recruitment or at least trying to be. They too cannot ignore the fact that COVID-19 is disruptive. A lovely positive is some are continuing with their growth plans as scheduled and we have actually seen some lovely success stories from these plans already. 

 

The general feedback from SME’s is that; due to the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19, the possible industry impacts, the unknowns of when freedom of movement and markets will return, they are opting to take a few weeks to see how things develop before any big decisions are made in relation to projects and hiring. And unfortunately, in many cases it’s looking at retaining their current team and if this is possible, genuinely heartbreaking for so many.

 

Since the most recent announcement from the Government regarding the wage subsidy scheme, a number of our clients who had originally paused recruitment until March 30th, have been in touch to seek advice on picking things up (slowly) and looking at remote interviewing, hiring and onboarding. As the majority of our clients (70%+) are in the tech space, they are well positioned to work remotely and are trying to very much get back to business as usual where possible, to keep projects moving and sales closing.

 

Other clients have started looking at contractors to bridge the gap where they do not feel confident offering people permanent positions. For many companies who typically hire permanent employees, the concept of contract employees is completely new so there is some work on their part with coming to terms with the idea and then the practicalities of implementing it. We are working with these clients to support them and advise on the different contracting options, including RECRUITERS payrolling new and/or existing contractors and temporary workers. 

 

RECRUITERS have over 130 contractors across Ireland of which we manage everything from their timesheets and training requirements to quarterly and annual reviews. Some companies are also outsourcing the payroll of their existing contracting and/or temp staff already in place to RECRUITERS in order to free up cashflow. 

 

It really is such surreal times and quite frankly very nerve wrecking for most of our clients. From our side, we are very much trying to support clients in any way possible to help them through this uncertain period through free advice and consultations, providing market and salary information, pipelining candidates so they can hit the ground running when they are ready to, project work such as employer branding and, unfortunately in some cases, working with them around employment law and the new government COVID-19 scheme.

 

In an effect to reduce and manage hiring costs, RECRUITERS are also rolling out a new Talent-As-A-Service offering for qualifying clients called RECRUITERSource. It’s a subscription model allowing you to control your talent costs and also gives you the option to build out a temporary in-house team to flex up and down as needed. Get in touch and I will send you some additional information on it!

 

There’s so much to talk about at the moment and I’d love to jump on a call at some stage to hear other businesses are handling the current situation and share any advice or services that we can to help you in this time, if you feel it would be helpful for you? You can get me directly on 01 6325044 / 087 6655355.

 

Written by Patricia Lynch

 

Patricia is a Senior Manager at RECRUITERS