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5 Post-COVID Global Work Trends in HR and Recruiting

In Finance
March 31, 2021
WRK.02.20.AI Workplace

Remote work is here to stay. If there was any doubt about that fact before the coronavirus began, there’s no question now. Restrictions are easing and many offices are reopening. However, that doesn’t change the fact that remote work will continue to play a major role in many companies’ operations going into the future.

With virtual work becoming a fixture of the modern workplace, it begs the question: how does this impact HR and recruiting? Here are a few of the biggest ways that remote work is already influencing these areas of business.

1. Remote Hiring

There’s something to be said for meeting a candidate face to face. Natural rapport, interactions, and body language are all much easier to read in person. With that said, many HR representatives are already adjusting to a life spent recruiting, onboarding, and training employees online

This requires a significant amount of coordination. Most of this comes in the form of technology. Recruiters must select the software that they want to use for interviews, sharing sensitive documentation, getting signatures, and so on. Along with logistics, recruiting online can also turn the hiring timeline into a longer process, as extra steps and interviews must take place in order to properly vet a candidate.

While this can be difficult, though, it does yield some nice advantages. For instance, hiring remote candidates opens the doors to a much larger pool of talent. Bold HR reps can even go international in their search for the right candidate. However, when they do, they must be extra careful to observe cultural sensitivity and customs.

2. Global Payroll

Finding and recruiting talent online is already challenging. However, once a remote recruit has entered the fold, the work only continues to mount from there. One of the trickiest aspects that must be addressed is payroll. 

Many companies are cashing in on the ability to work with qualified candidates across national borders. This has made payroll an international affair much more often than in the past. This requires the rather sophisticated ability to onboard, manage, and pay employees that are living in other countries.

While this is a significant concern for HR managers, there are third-party companies that are already working overtime to simplify this problem. In fact, software solutions already exist that can help to set up and streamline global payroll for a multinational workforce.

3. Online Training and Resources

Human Resources has been at the center of ongoing talent development in the past and it will continue to do so in the future. However, the appearance of that process will likely look very different.

In-person training sessions and group learning opportunities may still take place at times. However, with remote work, the enormous geographic footprint of many teams has made physical training sessions impossible. Instead, businesses are utilizing online training opportunities. This still can and does happen in a virtual group setting at times. However, there are also occasions when each employee can attend a training program on their own. This allows them to log in and attend the training when it fits into their own schedule.

Regardless of whether employees are on their own or in a group, the need for ongoing training has never been greater. Reskilling employees has become a crucial aspect of business survival in a post-COVID-19 business world. Before the pandemic, technological advancements like AI and automation were already pushing employees to always be learning. Now the coronavirus has changed the entire business landscape in the course of a single year. This has made a growth mindset an essential item for long-term business success.

4. Benefits Will Evolve

At the heart of its efforts, HR focuses on one thing above all else: the human capital of a company. From development to payroll, counseling, and other resources, it is the job of the HR department to ensure that employees have what they need to thrive.

Part of this revolves around benefits, many of which have changed since the pandemic began. Well-stocked company kitchens and employee-of-the-month parking spaces no longer have the luster that they once did. 

In addition, many past benefits have been addressed by the very nature of remote work. For instance, working from home and flexible schedules were both coveted perks a year ago. Now they are commonplace, and companies can no longer pass them off as a unique “benefit.” 

Instead, HR departments must come up with new benefits that appeal to both in-person and remote employees. In order to stand out from competitors and attract talent, companies are turning to a new hybrid of perks for their staff, such as:

  • Enhanced sick leave that accounts for things like pandemic-induced illnesses and quarantines.
  • Ongoing training and talent development opportunities to keep employees at the forefront of the talent pool.
  • Child care that includes those working at home.
  • Outplacement as an added security blanket if an employee falls victim to layoffs or furloughs in the future.

While these are just a few examples, there’s no doubt that perks and benefits are undergoing a transformation.

5. Communication Will Become More Important Than Ever

Communication is a key talent for HR representatives. In fact, it is an essential HR skill. Human Resource representatives are in constant communication with individual employees. They also must be able to serve as mediators between coworkers. Often they also act as liaisons between different departments such as accounting or even upper management.

In the remote-first post-COVID landscape, communication has become more important than ever before. The disconnected and disjointed aspect of many workforces has made it infinitely more complex to bring workers together — or even communicate with them one on one. 

This has put additional pressure on HR departments to find ways to interact with employees. From group training events to individual counseling sessions, HR reps must learn to utilize technological forms of communication in the workplace to stay connected.

Of course, with so much change going on, these five points are just the tip of the iceberg. Nevertheless, they serve to outline how profound the ongoing change is. HR and recruiting have always focused on the human element of business. They are rooted in interpersonal connections, judgments of character, and the ability to identify what others need. This poses a unique test to HR departments in every industry as they look for ways to overcome the challenges they face in a post-COVID-19 world.