The new (virtual) reality
Article by Christian Fuchs
CURRENT CHALLENGES
We’ve all noticed the advice from public health officials: stay at home, wash your hands and keep the social distance! Events, concerts and other mass gatherings were cancelled and schools, libraries, restaurants, playgrounds as well as many other were closed and are only starting to carefully open up again – such as also borders between countries in Europe, step by step. From a business perspective, this time is extremely challenging for many – with rapid changes required in daily operations and working life routines to keep the business up and running and creating efficiencies where possible.
While the pandemic has hit certain industries very hard, there are many others like e-commerce, logistics, healthcare and cybersecurity, which are stable and even partly growing rapidly during this time. However, due to Covid-19 measures, workload and cost base increased and the companies struggle to turn the revenue growth into more profits.
In the rather conservative Executive Search industry, we see a demand for rapid changes and need to adapt on the short-term but also long-lasting transformation and a new industry standard potentially evolving out of this crisis.
VIRTUAL RECRUITING & AI
Digitally supported recruiting has become the new normal for now – with the vast majority of people working from home, virtual interviews are easier to schedule than ever as no logistics needs to be handled. Also, potential candidates are rather free to discuss new job opportunities without worrying that someone will overhear their conversation with a headhunter or potential new employer. On the other side, also loyalty plays key role in these days. The employers and CEOs, who have been able to create loyalty with their key people, profit in these times. Whereas, the people that are ready to listen to external opportunities, tend to stick to employers that have taken well care of them also in difficult times.
AI based candidate screening tools, which promise to help recruiters become more efficient in identifying candidates, cutting down on recruitment costs and boosting overall candidate satisfaction, will gain market share in the future. But! No matter how well the algorithms already work and are able to self-learn, we shall not forget about how important the recruiter or headhunter using the tool is – the personal matchmaker with the best sense for people and with the talent to bring together top leaders and company cultures – across borders.
CONCLUSION: A NEW BALLGAME
Borders are expected to open step by step within EU as this is being pushed by the economic situation and companies demanding this. This will lead to recovery of the economies in the next months. Also, personal meetings will again start to take place more frequently when the infrastructure such as education and kindergarten systems are picking up their activity.
Successful adaption and transformation means being able to take full advantage of digitally supported interviews and tools on the market but without forgetting the importance of personal meetings. This is needed for chemistry and cultural matching purposes both in the search briefing between consultant and client as well as in the cultural matching process between candidate and hiring organ or manager.
It is not anymore enough to have a phone, good network and gray hair to be a successful headhunter. New business models and products are being developed and finally, the interaction between digital tools and consultants/individuals who are making the difference, comes to a great balance between use of technology and personal meetings (which are still needed).