What Clients are Doing Differently Due to COVID-19

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the employment marketplace has been a progression, much like the spread of the virus throughout the world population at large.

As such, it was only a matter of time before employers took steps to deal with the virus. This is especially the case in regards to face-to-face interviews. In order to shed some light on what employers have been doing, we posed a poll question to Top Echelon Network members.

That question was as follows:

Are clients doing anything differently with face-to-face interviews in light of COVID-19?

The choice of answers that we provided is listed below, along with the percentage of split network recruiters that selected each one:

• No, they’re doing nothing differently. — 19.2%
• Yes, they’re taking more health precautions with interviews. — 12.8%
• Yes, they’re postponing interviews and delaying hires. — 41.0%
• Yes, they’re doing more video interviews. — 21.8%
• Yes, they’re doing other things not mentioned here. — 5.1%

Summary:

Over four out of 10 recruiters (41.0%) indicated that their clients are “postponing interviews and delaying hires.” The second-most popular answer was that clients are “doing more video interviews” (21.8%).

Smaller percentages of Network members stated that their clients are “doing nothing differently” (19.2%) and “taking more health precautions with interviews” (12.8%). However, all of these numbers come with a caveat, which I will explain below . . .

Analysis and Conclusion:

The caveat with these results centers on the fact that the answers changed dramatically during the time that the poll question was live in the Top Echelon Members’ Area. At first, “No, they’re doing nothing differently” and “Yes, they’re taking more health precautions with interviews” dominated the answers that recruiters provided.

However, as time wore on, other answers became more common, specifically “Yes, they’re postponing interviews and delaying hires” and “Yes, they’re doing more video interviews.” It was obvious that clients have been taking progressively more drastic action as the virus spread.

Which, of course, means that as the virus continues to spread throughout the United States and the rest of the world, employers will continue to take additional steps. The real question is how many of them will institute a hiring freeze and stop interviewing candidates completely.

Is that a bit premature? Maybe and maybe not. Only time will tell.

If you have questions about your Top Echelon recruiting network membership, please contact Director of Network Operations Drea Codispoti, CPC/CERS.

You can do so by calling 330.455.1433, x156 or by sending an email to drea@topechelon.com.