Impact of the pandemic on recruitment and background screening

It is really hard to neglect the consequences of the COVID-19 on the working class. Many professionals have to leave their jobs due to the surge of this pandemic. Job aspirants are left with no choice but to rest at home. Employee’s home became a new office and virtual meetings are the only source of gathering and sharing daily updates. However, it is only possible with those who can work online and leaves the career of travelling people in the muddle. Experts at BPSS Clearance also accept that the recruitment process became so complicated, especially when it is about BPSS check. 

When everything is running from home then how you can overlook the hiring process in any company. Things went out of control when the government announced a complete lockdown, especially for recruiting new employees. They can’t meet any candidate personally and need to manage everything online. Before going into deep discussion, let’s understand what kind of challenges faces by many companies while hiring new candidates: 

New recruitment challenges during a lockdown:

• One needs to manage everything for telephonic conversation as it is the ultimate source of connecting the people.
• More concern shifted to handle the recruitment process to fulfil the demands of a population in certain areas.
• For IT companies, they need to hire more skilled manpower than previously required for excellent workflow. Simultaneously, they have to make sure that their team members are doing their work from home properly.
• Companies have to think about how to manage their recruitment processes when economic condition is getting worse. 
• Accessing information for background screening, especially to check criminal history is a matter of concern when everything needs to be processed virtually.

Survey reports on COVID-19 effects on HR operations

During the pandemic, the workforce faced many new challenges as the whole process shifted from offline to online. If you check out the survey report on the impact of the pandemic on HR operations, you will find some facts:

More than 88% of employees had felt the influence this global issue in HR processes and 65% of people are looking for new methods to retain their employees.

57% of employees told that they are busy with the hiring process under work-from-home scenarios. While adding employees to any organization, background clearance is the most significant issue that can’t be ignored.

Data Source- lexology.com

If companies need to hire people for handling sensitive information, they have to screen them for criminal history and employment background. 54% of people said that they were not examined.

Key points to understand the impact of the pandemic in recruitment:

Make necessary changes to the typical process 

The most challenging part of any hiring process is to get verification details. Usually, we checked out the sources to get the information of verification. Now, everything needs to be handled digitally. This pandemic forces recruitment industries to digitize their operations. Indirectly, it implies less dependency on documentation. However, it could be a hectic task for the administration to manage all these processes online.

For data analytics, go with artificial intelligence

In order to get better business performance and speed up the hiring process, companies opt for artificial intelligence. The use of data analytics provides a better understanding of handling the recruitment process. During COVID-19, companies have to manage under a certain budget and need to handle the overall mechanics of their business. Therefore, it is good to use the more advanced version of the technology for hassle-free business operations.

Adding more processes for criminal authentication

Facing delays in criminal checks is quite obvious due to the consequences of the pandemic. Many government departments in the UK count criminal verification as a mandatory step. But, due to COVID-19, sources of information got limited. In that case, two steps can be supplemented. Firstly, the addition of three options in screening processes that includes adverse media verification, global sanctions and enforcements, and conduct checks. Another method is to use self-declaration in which an applicant has to answer a set of questions and describe his criminal history (if any).

Longer probation periods for new employees

In UK government occupations, the probation period is normal. One has to show his accountability for the job under a certain period of employment called probation time. It could be 3 to 6 months before getting a permanent role in any organisation. This pandemic impacts the probation period as no face-to-face contact is possible.

Conclusion:

The impact of COVID-19 is huge on employment. Many companies are combating the hiring process due to limited source of information. They have to manage the manpower and maintain the source of availability concurrently. To lower the impact on the background screening process, they can partner with third-party and add some changes in their verification process.