Companies will no longer be hiring on the basis of mere degrees, as the talent acquisition will be focused on deciding whether the candidate has the ability to successfully survive and thrive in the revamped industrial workplace!

Coronavirus has altered the course of HR radically and, perhaps, permanently. There are only few silver linings to the pandemic, but some of these changes may be for the better. Post-Covid era will be a testament to a new beginning, organisations that survive this onslaught will benefit from a revitalized and renewed HR. While economic reboot and conduct of business as usual may take considerable time, the new normal will require organisations to reform their workforce strategies alongside evolving workforce dynamics. 

Skills over degrees even at junior level hiring

The Pandemic has brought in the awareness of the relevance of technical and industrial skills that can help the company grow. The immediate shift in the near future seems to be the attempts to make the hiring processes swift and lucid. Practices of quantifying skills seem to be the most crucial from the Human Resource perspective. Technical skills have become a "must-have" in a wide spectrum of organisations and industries. As a result, skill based hiring has seen a surge and HR will focus on remodeling the old workspace. Technical skills like Artificial Intelligence (AI), cybersecurity, IoT, data analysis, etc. will be on priority list during the hiring processes. Companies will no longer be hiring on the basis of mere degrees, as the talent acquisition will be focused on deciding whether the candidate has the ability to successfully survive and thrive in the revamped industrial workplace!

Already, the organisational processes have automatically moved towards a more decentralised approach and with this, it has become essential for Talent Acquisition to ascertain the skill set of the employee they are hiring. Now, more than ever, skills determine the luster of a candidate. The crucial transformation seems to be in the scope of tech enabled - quantification of quality.

Technology to play a much bigger part

Digital technology is continuing to evolve at whirlwind speed, and it has permeated nearly every aspect of our working lives. Artificial Intelligence(AI) has steadily gained importance across the various fields. HR being a strategic and the core of an industry, there is an infinite scope to adapt to latest technologies, for example, software applications like Human Capital Management have successfully embedded AI functionalities into its core processing engine and have proved to be a game changer. 

Trends like virtual hiring are also giving a push to tech integration in HR. In the absence of the traditional one-on-one interviews, virtual hiring tools like anti plagiarism, whiteboarding, time trackers etc are taking centrestage. Furthermore, processes and tools for virtual onboarding and making an employee feel welcome are also becoming an essential part of recruiting.

Employer branding will be under the microscope

While companies have a lot on their minds at the moment, they should be mindful not to let employer branding fall off their radars. As the world ventures into uncharted waters, HR leaders need to keep their eye on the future of the company and the work industry. In the rapidly changing global scenario, with the ever evolving technological trends, human resources essentially need to cater to retaining talent that is crucial to the company for success in the longer run. The world is paying close attention to how companies treat their people right now—and going silent may do more harm than good. HR should also seek clarity about what information they can and can’t share, both internally and online. In the long term, adopting—and maintaining—a stance of honesty, transparency, and empathy in all their employer branding efforts will allow companies to have more productive conversations with potential candidates. 

There is a pressing need for organisations to re-imagine their talent landscape, especially their talent acquisition strategy to tide over the immediate crisis. The technological breakthroughs and the integration of analytics and AI is what is going to be way forward for HR and will provide a different outlook. The remote work is here to stay, and HR will plot the path ahead.

(The article is authored by Siddharth Maheshwari, Co-Founder, Newton School)