COVID-19 and recruitment – the story continues

June 12th, 2020 | Industry News

Today Recruit So Simple is focusing on the national stage – how is COVID-19 affecting the UK recruitment industry as a whole, and what challenges is recruiting software going to face in the weeks ahead?

The Coronavirus Job Retention scheme has been an interesting development for recruiters – whilst it has underpinned existing positions and given companies a chance to continue recruitment programmes for existing jobs, it has acted as something of a brake both on the creation of new jobs and on the movement of potential candidates who have felt the certainty of an existing position to be much more attractive than the lure of an unknown (and untested) one.

Record numbers of people have used online recruitment resources in the past few months, evidence of the way that web based recruitment software is likely to lead the way in future recruitment initiatives.

Test and Trace and recruitment

While the government’s new Test and Trace system has given confidence to many who are returning to the workplace, legal experts have also suggested that it might lead to a rise in the increase of workplace disputes and even contribute to difficulties in filling temporary contracts in certain high-risk sectors. The risk of disputes arises around the ‘right to a safe place of work’ which could lead to individuals feeling their own position is unsafe and/or being able to claim they feel they were subjected to detrimental treatment if they are not listened to/given a test/able to compel others in the workplace to undergo tests… it’s an untested area of case law that may come back to bite many employers in the months ahead.

Test and Trace brings its own complications. Recruitment software that has the capacity to store this kind of data is likely to simplify processes as it will be important for any applicant tracking system, uk based, to log tests issued and results received, especially around imposed self-isolation dates which will substantially impact the availability of temporary workers who receive a positive test or live in a household with somebody who does. Recruitment agency software has a strong role to play in both keeping workforces safe and in supplying essential temporary personnel to help the economy return to full power.