Comparative study of recruitment before

Covid-19 and after Covid-19:

Companies have always been considering the human

capital as the most important asset for the firm. Business
organizations are improving the recruiting and selection
methods. Recruitment is the basic function where the
employees enter into the organization.
Recruitment program is one that attracts a relatively large
number of qualified applicants who will further survive the
screening process and accept their positions with the
organization when offered.
Companies almost always recruit candidates for new
positions via advertisements, job boards, social media
sites, and others. Many companies utilize recruiting
software to more effectively and efficiently source top
candidates. 
An efficient recruitment process is an organization specific
sourcing model that aims to find the right fit for the right
job at the right time. It is a step by step approach in
bringing in the talented people who can help the company
grow.
Importance of a Strong Recruitment
Process:

Recruitment process is typically targeted towards

attracting qualified candidates and encouraging maximum
possible job seekers to apply. This makes it possible to
build a big pool of talented players in a tight job market
and minimizes the time involved in finding candidates and
filling roles for the present and future requirements of the
company. A well-planned and thoughtfully crafted
recruitment process helps the hiring team filter the right
candidates faster while staying focused on engaging the
eligible candidates for maximum conversions. The
recruitment process not only reflects the company’s
professionalism but also helps attract the right kind of
candidates while saving the time and money spent on
identifying, attracting, engaging, recruiting and retaining
talent.
7 Phases in a Recruitment Process
The recruitment lifecycle consists of seven interrelated
steps which are as follows:

Identifying the Hiring Screening and

Needs Shortlisting

Preparing the Job

Interviewing
Description

Evaluation and Offer of

Talent Search
Employment
 Introduction and
Induction of the New
Employee

1. Identifying the Hiring Needs:

The recruitment process starts with identifying the

vacancies that exist in the organization and then followed
by the analyzing the job specifications including the
knowledge, skill and experience needed for the specific
role. Some ways to identify the hiring needs are:
 Find out where the gaps are in the current team.
 Checking that if you have new needs in terms of
ability, performance or personality.
 Keep a track of input and output when it comes to
your team. If there is an increase in workload that
needs to be balanced by hiring.
 Analyzing the performance and making a list of
missing qualities, skills that needed to add to your
team.
 Minding the existing employees leaving.
 2. Preparing the Job Description:

After knowing exactly what u need in terms of knowledge,

skill. It is the time to determine the duties and
responsibilities of the job. Preparing a comprehensive job
description (JD) will help you that what your potential
employees must have in order to meet the demands of the
role. It also provides your prospects with a checklist or a
list that they can compare themselves to before applying.
It is a tool to ensure that you get applications from the right
candidates

A job description must include all of the following and can

be as comprehensive as you want:
 Title
 Duties and responsibilities
 Qualification & Skills
 Location
 Compensation, Perks and Benefits

3. Talent Search
Identifying the right talent, attracting them and motivating
them to apply are the most important aspects of the
recruitment process. The job listing should be advertised
internally to generate referrals as well as externally on
popular social networking sites and preferred job boards.
Recruiters can also conduct job fairs and promote
openings in leading industry publications to cast a wider
net. Broadly, there are two sources of recruitment that can
be tapped for a talent search:
Internal Sources of Recruitment:
 Transfer
 Promotion
 Demotion
 Job rotation
 Retirement of employees

External Sources of Recruitment:

 Advertisements
 Job Portals
 Campus Placements
 Company’s Career site
 Social Networking Platforms

4. Screening and Shortlisting

In order to move forward with the recruitment process, you
need to screen and shortlist applicants efficiently and
accurately. This is where the recruitment process gets
difficult and challenging.
You can resolve this recruitment bottleneck by following
these four steps:

1. Screen applications on the basis of minimum

qualifications.
2. Next, sort resumes that have the preferred credentials
by looking at their certifications, relevant experience,
domain expertise, technical competencies and other
specific skills that are required for the role.
3. Then, shortlist candidates who have both the
preferred credentials and the minimum qualifications.
4. Finally, flag any concerns or queries in the resume so
they can be clarified during the interview.
A survey of recruiters revealed that while 46% struggle to
attract top talent in the current candidate-driven market,
52% confirmed that the most challenging part of hiring was
identifying the right candidates from a large pool of
applicants.

5. Interviewing:
The shortlisted applications will now move through the
interview process prior to receiving an offer letter or a
rejection note. Depending on the size of the hiring team
and their unique recruitment needs, several interviews
may be scheduled for every candidate.
Face-to-Face Interviewing
Personal interviews can last longer because this is the last
step before the recruiter does a final evaluation and
makes the job offer. Final interviews may be conducted by
the top management and are typically extended to a very
small pool of standout candidates. The final choice should
be agreed upon at this stage along with a backup
candidate selection.

6. Evaluation and Offer of Employment:

This is the final stage of the recruitment process. You
should never take it for granted that the candidate will
accept your offer. However, if your candidate has patiently
completed all the paperwork and waited through the
selection process, the odds of accepting the offer are high.
Some of the things that you should do once u get the
candidate’s:
 Checkking the references
 Making the job offer
 Onboarding
 Evaluation and Optimization of the Recruitment
Process

7. Introduction and Induction of New Employee:

When applicants accept the job offer, they officially
become the employees of the company. The joining date
and time is communicated to the employee. Once that’s
done, pre-employment screening that includes reference
and background checks are conducted. Once the
verification is done, the employees are then introduced to
the organization. The induction process of the employees
then begins. During the induction process, a welcome kit
is usually given to the new employees, and then the
employment contract is signed.

After Covid-19

In the middle of the coronavirus pandemic, the world

facing many uncertainty in all the sectors. The businesses
are looking for different ways to stay productive by
managing staff and maintaining workloads.
Covid-19 has changed hiring needs of most of the
companies, though the impact is different for different
industries but the hiring process had seen a huge decline.
Due to the lockdown policies which got implemented
across the country made the companies to put a hold on
their recruitment.
Sectors including travel, tourism, hotels and
manufacturers has completely stopped and also did force
to fire their employees leading to significant reduction in
work hours and mass layoffs.
Where some industries been are having complete
opposite impact such as pharmacy retail and supply chain
industries have faced a huge need for their service. In
order to satisfy the situation of increased demand where
these companies had to hire more of additional
employees.

Amazon, Walmart and CVS health is hiring thousands of

new employees in this pandemic.
During the lockdown, when restrictions were introduced to
stop the spread of the COVID-19, companies who wanted
to continue hiring had no choice but to change their
recruitment processes and adapt to new social distancing
norms. In order to protect the health of their recruiters and
candidates, as well as their families, companies had to
shift to virtual recruitment.

Shifting the whole recruitment process fully online was a

huge challenge for most companies. However, some
companies had to make just a few minor changes in their
recruitment process. The difference between these two
groups of companies was their use of technology.
Recruitment software:

6%

94% of HR professionals say they are94%

using a recruitment software has positiveky impacted
their hiring process

For companies that relied on an old school manual, face-

to-face recruitment process, switching to fully online
recruitment was a real nightmare. They were lost in a
million excel tables, emails, phone calls and lacking
appropriate tools to organize and streamline their hiring
process.
On the other hand, companies that used recruitment
software prior to the COVID-19 were able to adapt quickly
and easily and their transition to a fully virtual
recruiting was a smooth sail. Most of them just replaced
face-to-face interviews with live video interviews, while the
rest of their hiring process remained the same as it was
before the COVID-19.

HR technology prevalence:

30%

70%

70% of small and medium - sized enterprises will be utilizing HR technologies.

Many companies who have switched to virtual hiring due

to the COVID-19 will embrace these changes in the long
term. Virtual recruiting will become the new normal, even
in the post-pandemic world. 
This is related to the global shift to remote work that was
triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic. According to a
recent Gallup’s research, almost 60% of U.S. employees
who have been doing their jobs from home during the
coronavirus pandemic would prefer to continue to work
remotely - even after the pandemic ends!

Virtual recruiting is the new normal

Gen Z job seekers appreciate tech savvy organizations.
Recent data suggests that they will not even apply for a
job with an organization if they think its recruitment
methods are outdated. Companies looking for top talent,
even during this pandemic, they need to assure their
brand messages cutting edge technology.
Video recruitment is a must-have for companies even in
optimal hiring conditions. Who are already using
recruitment technology are More likely to speed up time-
to-hire - pandemic or not.

Other workplace shifts that may

become long-term
Remote work
Remote work may have been on employee wish lists long
before COVID-19, but many organisations are discovering
that it is not only feasible, but also advantageous. As the
virus fades, some speculate that a permanent shift to
working from home may be on the horizon. According to
recent data, 60% of workers are confident in their ability to
perform their job efficiently remotely, even indefinitely.

Employee rights
As the government mandates paid sick and family leave
during the outbreak, many companies are shifting their
focus to hourly workers, who were previously excluded
from such perks. Sick leave insurance and coverage for
hourly workers have been established by state and local
governments; the virus may accelerate the spread of
these laws and policies. As organisations working hard to
hire new employees and increase retention rates in the
face of completion, this shift may become permanent. As
businesses continue to meet demand and maintain
productivity during these difficult times, there are
numerous resources available to assist in navigating the
changes mandated by COVID-19. Companies will need to
leverage every option available to keep their workforce,
their partners and their customers as safe as possible.

Performance Appraisal
Performance Appraisal is the systematic evaluation of the
performance of employees and to understand the abilities of a
person for further growth and development. Performance
appraisal is generally done in systematic ways which are as
follows:

1. The supervisors measure the pay of employees and

compare it with targets and plans.
2. The supervisor analyses the factors behind work
performances of employees.
3. The employers are in position to guide the employees for a
better performance.

Objectives of Performance Appraisal

Performance Appraisal can be done with following objectives in
mind:

1. To maintain records in order to determine compensation

packages, wage structure, salaries raises, etc.
2. To identify the strengths and weaknesses of employees to
place right men on right job.
3. To maintain and assess the potential present in a person for
further growth and development.
4. To provide a feedback to employees regarding their
performance and related status.
5. To provide a feedback to employees regarding their
performance and related status.
6. It serves as a basis for influencing working habits of the
employees.
7. To review and retain the promotional and other training
programs.
Advantages of Performance Appraisal
It is said that performance appraisal is an investment for the
company which can be justified by following advantages:

1. Promotion: 

Performance Appraisal helps the supervisors to chalk out the

promotion programs for efficient employees. In this regards,
inefficient workers can be dismissed or demoted in case.

2. Compensation:

Performance Appraisal helps in chalking out compensation

packages for employees. Merit rating is possible through
performance appraisal. Performance Appraisal tries to give worth
to a performance. Compensation packages which includes bonus,
high salary rates, extra benefits, allowances and pre-requisites
are dependent on performance appraisal. The criteria should be
merit rather than seniority.

3. Employees Development:

The systematic procedure of performance appraisal helps the

supervisors to frame training policies and programs. It helps to
analyze strengths and weaknesses of employees so that new
jobs can be designed for efficient employees. It also helps in
framing future development programs.

4. Selection Validation:

Performance Appraisal helps the supervisors to understand the

validity and importance of the selection procedure. The
supervisors come to know the validity and thereby the strengths
and weaknesses of selection procedure. Future changes in
selection methods can be made in this regard.

5. Communication: 

For an organization, effective communication between employees

and employers is very important. Through performance appraisal,
communication can be sought for in the following ways:

a. Through performance appraisal, the employers can

understand and accept skills of subordinates.
b. The subordinates can also understand and create a
trust and confidence in superiors.
c. It also helps in maintaining cordial and congenial labour
management relationship.
d. It develops the spirit of work and boosts the morale of
employees.

All the above factors ensure effective communication.

6. Motivation:

Performance appraisal serves as a motivation tool. Through

evaluating performance of employees, a person’s efficiency can
be determined if the targets are achieved. This very well
motivates a person for better job and helps him to improve his
performance in the future.