Throughout Covid the majority of us have worked from home, and we’ve made use of technologies which we had little to do with prior to Covid, such as Teams and Zoom. Time is important to us. We’ve juggled the demands and commitment of our work, our home life, perhaps we’ve been a carer and, in many cases, we’ve taken on the delights of homeschooling.

As and when we think about a change in professional surroundings, the recruitment process we encounter has to show a similar respect and consideration for our time and other commitments. One that asks us to wait for a time convenient not for us but a prospective employer isn’t helping such prospects hugely.

The contrast between the experience and outcomes we encounter through, say, Amazon and that we come across via any number of ATS’ has been showcased many times before. The former experience is fast, intuitive and trackable. It isn’t repetitive and rarely do we lose the will to live or certainly complete the process.

It’s not a new contrast but it’s one that’s been exacerbated during the lockdown. We have depended on the likes of Amazon and the various constituent delivery models, along with supermarket and food takeaway services. Everyone will have their own small grumble – actually, I haven’t – but generally they have been slick and efficient, to such an extent that we nearly take them for granted.

With such user-friendly online interactions, it will be interesting to make use of an employer’s ATS. Our expectations are likely to be much higher, we’ve had all manner of hair clippers, bread makers, and loo rolls delivered to us at speed and without fuss. How patient will great talent be in the face of an unintuitive, clunky and repetitive online process?

As we continue to experience life at something of an aloof distance, we have taken to a greater reliance on online reviews and ratings. About to buy a book online, I took more time than I perhaps would normally to interpret both the ratings and comments. Interestingly, many of the five-star ratings were from other authors. Those awarding less flattering testimonials had picked up on this and sensed a lack of authenticity and sincerity.

As the year unfolds, there is likely to be both a significant wave of people wishing to change jobs – they have taken a role in the last ten months they would not normally have or Covid has seen them staying put for longer than intended – as well as the significant presence of caution. Prospective job changers will be paying much more attention to comments on the likes of Glassdoor as well as employee stories on careers websites. If such narratives touch on employer indifference in the first example or an unwillingness to update in the second, again candidates are unlikely to confuse such an employer with one actively embracing a post-Covid future.

We’ve come to trust our fellow travellers through Covid more than official mouthpieces. There can be few things we’ve held more dear to us than our health and safety since March 2020. We’ve worried about coughing, shortness of breath and our sense of taste and smell. We’ve taken alarming amounts of Vitamin D and every other drinks brand in the country has been making their own hand sanitiser.

So what impact will this have?

I suspect those employers that go out of their way to construct a Covid-safe working environment will enhance their reputation. And if they can bolster their provision around mental health, employee assistance, nutrition and physical exercise, then so much the better. As Tom Peters suggested recently ‘Business is community’ – whether they like it or not, employers have more responsibility for their people than ever before. And playing a key role in their people’s health and safety is a decent starting point.

Finally, we’ve spent lockdown, with varying degrees of grace and acceptance, being told what to do and when. If we can go out, with whom we can go out, where we can go out to. I suspect limits are being reached.

I have a feeling then that, as individuals start to think about a career move, they are not eagerly seeking out a prescriptive, dogmatic recruitment process in which they have little say and even less enthusiasm. They want to have input, a voice and the feeling that employers and recruitment partners are listening to them and responding accordingly. Organisations have been changed significantly as a result of Covid. It has pushed some unfortunately to the wall, whilst being a figurative shot in the arm for others.

Employers should not think, then, that candidate audiences remain the same, unmarked by the ravages of Covid. They will be looking for different things from their lives, their relationships and certainly their careers. And the routes into such careers need to heed what we have been through. Marketers will be rethinking how to engage with customer audiences in a post-Covid world, resourcing professionals need to give similar consideration as to what candidate audiences want and don’t want as a result of the last year.

About

Neil Harrison is recognised as a leading employer brand specialist, creating insights and actionable intelligence around key people audiences. Internal employee communities as well as external talent pools. These are insights which will help drive informed EVPs and their associated employer brands. Factors such as Brexit, as well as a tightening labour market, mean that organisations serious about talent acquisition need to act based on knowledge rather than guesswork.