By Claire McCartney, Senior Policy Adviser at CIPD.
The Resourcing and Talent Planning Survey is now live…
The impact of the coronavirus means that the way organisations resource and plan their workforce is changing rapidly. The CIPD in partnership with Omni’s Resourcing and Talent Planning Survey is now live and we would like to hear how your organisation is being impacted and responding to these challenging times, as well as the wider resourcing practices you have responded to in the last 12 months.
This survey covers a range of topics related to resourcing and talent planning, including:
- The impact of COVID-19 on your resourcing activity
- Recruitment and retention practices and challenges
- The cost of recruitment per hire
- Labour turnover
- Diversity practices
- Using data to evaluate / inform practices
Your feedback is vital to us and will help other organisations resource and talent plan in the most effective way while giving you an opportunity to take stock of your own organisation's approach. The CIPD will also use the findings to directly influence government policy.
The impact of COVID-19
A joint survey published at the beginning of April, from the CIPD and People Management magazine shows how employers are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey of 301 HR professionals explores how employers are managing their workforce, as well as their hiring plans for the immediate future and accessing government support.
When it comes to recruitment, the results show that unsurprisingly hiring is expected to take a hit over the next few months as employers assess demand for products and services, more specifically:
- More than half (52%) said that all hiring has been frozen
- A quarter (25%) said they would continue to hire but less than normal
- One in seven (14%) said hiring would continue as normal
- 4% said that they would continue to hire and need more staff to cope with demand.
Immediate impact
Clearly, COVID-19 has had a substantial impact on recruitment. The lockdown and isolation policies mean that many businesses have been forced to shut or downsize. There have been both layoffs and a significant reduction in working hours across many industries. Significant numbers of organisations will be accessing the Government’s Job retention scheme to furlough employees. Overall, as the survey findings above suggest, many will have put their recruitment on hold until the crisis ends.
Recruitment agencies themselves are likely to be strongly impacted, particularly those that target the most affected industries. Because agencies can be more costly than available technical solutions, it may be a while before companies start to outsource the process again.
For those industries still recruiting, social distancing presents different challenges; much of it has to be done virtually rather than face to face. There are also likely to be fewer candidates due to the virus, and for industries like healthcare, there are added challenges due to the urgent need to recruit enough key workers.
While COVID-19 has meant that recruitment in sectors such as retail, hospitality and leisure have stopped in their tracks, other sectors are seeing much greater demand. These include roles in the medical industry, government roles, supermarkets, food production and agriculture, delivery and cleaning, business restructuring, delivery and logistics, utilities and businesses enabling and supporting remote working and home-schooling.
Longer-term impact
It is hoped that the Government’s measures, specifically the furlough scheme, will have a significant impact on businesses’ ability to retain their staff. This is likely to make it quicker and easier for companies to return to previous levels of operation and productivity, which will have a positive impact on recruitment in the longer-term.
For some organisations and recruitment agencies, there will be pressure to reassign and potentially reskill workers to parts of the business and sectors that are creating jobs in the short and longer-term.
It is also likely that resourcing practices will see some longer-term impacts when it comes to ways of working. It is likely that there will be greater utilisation of technology to allow remote interviewing of candidates and onboarding staff virtually. We might also see an increase in the availability of flexibility and remote working options going forward.
Take the Resourcing and Talent Planning Survey here and enter the draw for a chance to win Bose SoundSport® wireless headphones.
Sources
https://www.cipd.co.uk/about/media/press/redundancies-coronavirus
https://www.businessleader.co.uk/how-has-covid-19-affected-the-recruitment-sector/82428/
