The wrath of COVID-19 has ensnared the entire world, forcing people to trap themselves in their homes and arrest the outspread of this deadly ailment. The economy spiraled into recession, causing irreversible damage and plunging many companies into losses, which changed the face of the entire labor market. Amidst the worldwide lockdown, layoffs continue to skyrocket as most of the companies suspended outdoor business activities, leading to the closure of the brick-and-mortar services being offered by them. Most of the companies have either frozen their hiring processes or are striving to hire remotely, which brings into the picture the role of manpower consultants, placement consultants, and recruitment industry in these dire times.
The tourism, hospitality and the entertainment sector have been worst hit by this global pandemic, with companies running into losses in millions. In this period of economic slump, the healthcare sector, the consumer non-durables sector, and the distribution services seem to be booming, thus escalating the need to recruit more into these industries. In these changing times when people are switching to online conversations, companies are facing an uphill task of hiring new employees and conducting their orientation and training. Since face-to-face interviews are almost impossible to be conducted as of now, companies turn to manpower and placement consultants in order to select the best candidate suited for their business. Pharmaceutical firms and healthcare companies aim to take in more and more job seekers in the market, so as to cater to the soaring needs.
Working remotely requires self-motivation and self-induced discipline, and thus it becomes paramount to scour job markets thoroughly, which can most efficiently be performed by recruitment agencies. Also, due to rising unemployment, most people are ready to switch careers, which thus renders the contribution of manpower and placement consultants important, since the companies now have the opportunity to recruit talent from another professional sector market. During these periods of uncertainty, companies are keen on favoring those job-seekers who may be inexperienced in the field but are familiar with working remotely and possess the aforementioned qualities of discipline and motivation. These type of job-seekers are also ready to work on a lower pay than the standard job market rates, which makes them even more attractive for the current loss-making companies. Job applications are steeply dropping since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, depicting the hesitation of jobseekers to enter the insecure recruitment process, which has all the more forced companies to turn to manpower and placement consultants in order to seek their services of finding the most suitable candidate.
Minutely scrutinising resumes and expanding the purview of recruitment has become the need of the hour. With travel out of the question at least for the forthcoming quarter, many companies now have the chance they had been denied all these years: implementing the concept of global recruitment, thus effectively tackling the induced talent gap. It thus becomes absolutely necessary to comb the global talent market, since the right person for your firm may well be waiting in another corner of the world, which all the more demands the services of recruitment agencies, since manpower and placement consultants will facilitate effective filtering and shortlisting the desired candidate as suiting to the needs of the firm. The booming sectors of healthcare and online distribution services have stepped up the recruitment drive and aims to infuse more and more people from the worst-hit sectors of hospitality and entertainment. Job orientation and garnering the necessary skills is another challenge that firms need to overcome. Though there is a treasure trove of online resources to mould a fresher as according to the company’s needs, being acquainted with the recent technology for working remotely becomes an added advantage. Opening the gates to an extensive labour market requires an efficient recruitment model to be developed, and though it may be justified that companies were not planned for this large scale global pandemic, conforming to the present conditions is a Herculean task.
Most companies, which may not have the provision of hiring currently due to steep losses, are focussing on building a talent pool by seeking the services of manpower and placement consultants, so that they may be able to encash this pool once their loss period culminates. During this lockdown period, when people tend to browse social networks for a longer time than usual, tapping into online advertisements is crucial. Publicity through social networking handles requires consulting with recruitment agencies to understand the current job market, and ensures the creation of a boundless talent pool, ranging across various sectors. For instance, a pharmaceutical company urgently desires to hire in-store personnel to handle the rising demands of medicines. An employee experienced in the hospitality sector who was recently rendered unemployed may be suitable for dispensing the necessary duties required by the pharmaceutical company since he already has experience of dealing with customers. Thus, such sectoral boundaries vanish during the current recruitment procedures, and since companies need to experiment with job seekers from various sectors, seeking the services of experienced manpower and placement consultants becomes imperative for a successful recruitment drive.
