Episode #4 - Get A Job
Unemployment on the rise, companies shifting to remote work. How do companies hire in a post-pandemic world?
🎤Preamble
The traditional job interview is no more. Admittedly, tech companies have been leaning on technology to help hire for years now, and there is a lot of innovation in the space, but hiring has always had a physical element to it.
As social distancing and limited contact become the new normal, companies are turning to apps like Zoom to conduct video interviews and platforms to find new talent.
The problem many companies are now facing is how do they hire during a pandemic? No office tours or team lunches, no on-site interviews. How can you ensure someone is a good fit if your only interactions are over video and email?
📒Research
Technology, healthcare, home fitness and other sectors continue to hire as other industries experience the opposite. A staggering 20.5 million US jobs were lost in April 2020. Glassdoor even created a COVID-19 surge jobs section on its site.
Office perks are on a hiatus. Not long ago, companies aimed to stand out by offering various office perks ranging from coffee to pet-friendly offices, beer, massages and free lunches. Now that distancing measures will be in place for the foreseeable future, goodbye free food and beer. Employees were getting tired of office perks anyway, according to a 2019 survey.
References and your online presence (such as social media) are now more important than ever as companies do greater due diligence on candidates. Will they be the ideal fit, not only culturally, but professionally?
The International Labour Organisation reports that the pandemic is having a disproportionate effect on women workers. The data also shows that a large portion of the global working population has been affected in some way from the pandemic. In Q2 2020, 14% of global working hours were lost due to the pandemic, an equivalent to 400 million full-time jobs. It’s no surprise a lot of these losses were in retail and manufacturing as well as tourism (and associated sectors).
🧐Observations
Some industries are experiencing unprecedented growth, and others are experiencing the opposite
Hiring during a pandemic is very difficult
Companies are looking for ways to screen and hire candidates virtually as in-person interviews get put on pause for the foreseeable future
It is difficult to know the real “them” when conducting interviews and test virtually, there is something about in-person interactions that can reveal a lot about a person (body language, communication skills)
Existing tools and platforms have always factored in a physical human element and never assumed the hiring process would be 100% remote, even companies like Facebook and Google have hiring processes that are only partially remote with an onsite component
Video services like Zoom are popular for conducting interviews, but they’re not specifically oriented towards hiring
Hiring is no longer confined to a small geographical region
🔎Opportunities
Hiring during a pandemic is far from a solved problem. There is a very clear opportunity to make this process easier. A greater emphasis on your character as a person (what are you posting on social media) is now an important factor in hiring as companies scramble to screen candidates virtually.
Here is an idea for an app: using sentiment analysis, perform a scan of social media profiles and whatnot to help identify any potentially problematic content that might affect your chances of being hired.
Can you make the job search process easier? Competition is fierce in the online jobseeker and recruitment space, but with the number of people now out of work or companies looking to hire to meet demand, there is always room for another one. Take a look at ZipRecruiter who seems to be one of the fastest-growing in the space.
Growing unemployment numbers mean that there is potentially more competition for job seekers. Can you make an app or some kind of tool/service that helps job seekers stand out from the crowd? Think beyond C.V building tools (those are overdone). How can you help people get a job?
The disconnect between virtual and physical is real. How can companies and job seekers form a connection over an internet cable? Is it possible to replicate body language online? How do you make the process feel less dystopian than it does right now?
Now more than ever, addressing workplace gender inequality and ensuring that all of the progress that has been made with gender inequality does not get undone. How can companies ensure that women do not get left behind again?
💌In Summary
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we eat, the way we exercise, the way we work and the way companies and hire. Existing tools and platforms are not all well-equipped to deal with these sudden changes to society.
Is there a gap in the market to take an existing tool or platform and modernise to function in a post-pandemic society? There are always gaps; it is up to you to find them and fill them before someone else does.