Understandably the UK entered panic mode in March 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic spread rapidly through the country. Rightly so, people’s attention shifted to the health of those close to them and career ambitions took a backseat.
Here at Nolan we have seen a big shift over the last week from the clients and candidates we work with. With no proven treatment or vaccine confirmed, people have begun to accept that we will need to adapt in order to live with this virus. Some companies have ground to a halt and entered survival mode whilst others continue to require new staff to be able to fulfil the future objectives of the company.
So how are these companies recruiting without the traditional face to face interview methods?
Interviewing
Here at Nolan interviews began to ground to a halt in early March however in the last week we have seen a big surge in clients taking advantage of online video conferencing technology in order to conduct their interviews. Nolan Recruitment use the Zoom platform with our clients however there are many others to choose from with Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Skype amongst the most popular.
The feedback we are getting is extremely positive, even better than we ever expected and I imagine this will change the interview process indefinitely. For candidates it’s much easier to set time aside for the interview. With a face to face interview a candidate may have had to take a day’s holiday to attend the interview due to travel needs and the interview itself. Now a candidate can do this on their dinner hour without the travel involved. Or perhaps an early morning interview before they commence their day. It also speeds up the process which helps to keep candidates engaged.
You may need to get used to random interruptions such as dogs and children but who really cares about this? It’s actually nice to see more of the human behind the professional candidate and hiring manager.
Onboarding
Clients who use online paperwork programmes such as Docusign or Adobe Sign have a distinct advantage in this area. Candidates can view and sign paperwork remotely. Not to mention the storage and security benefits for the client.
Online training courses have seen a huge increase in demand, understandably. Clients are using this to ensure no time is wasted in getting candidates up to speed.
As you can appreciate, 90% of the time, at some point our clients will actually need the Engineer to attend their place of work to commence. With social distancing and relevant risk assessments clients are taking great care for the welfare of their staff. Changing shift patterns to limit contact is something we are seeing from our clients.
Remote working
As we have mentioned remote working isn’t always possible within engineering. Remote working is much easier for industries such as IT and office based roles. It is however possible for some support functions to operate efficiently from home.
One thing is for sure; the memories of this will live with us forever but we must adapt to move forward. Here at Nolan we wish you the very best in your health.
