Nearly 50% employers hired only virtually in 2020, finds Indeed survey

A survey carried out by one of the leading job portals, Indeed.com, found that 47 per cent employers hired only virtually, while nearly one in three used a combination of virtual and face-to-face hiring methods during the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.

With nearly two in every five employers saying that virtual hiring is here to stay, Indeed has launched Virtual Hiring Events (VHE), a platform that will help recruiters across the country hire virtually. Ahead of the launch of VHE, Indeed also spoke with nearly 500 employers across 16 sectors and 12 cities.
 

According to Indeed.com Managing Director Sashi Kumar, with VHE, employers across India can easily, and cost-effectively, create and promote their own company-sponsored virtual hiring event(s) where they can host open interviews, from a safe distance, and hire for a set of roles they need to fill.

"With India having the world’s second-largest workforce, it can be a challenge to find the right hire, especially in the middle of a pandemic. In order to succeed, we need to acknowledge that the things that matter to job seekers have changed. Employers have to reimagine their recruitment strategies to find great talent and create opportunities for growth. Indeed is constantly innovating to find new ways to improve, adapt and simplify the hiring process and VHE is a step in that direction," said Kumar.

The survey found that 31 per cent employers credited virtual hiring for giving them wider access to talent, while another 28 per cent said this approach allowed for flexibility and convenience, a priority for job seekers today. Nearly one in five employers also said that virtual hiring reduced bias in the recruitment process.

Be it large or medium Indian & global companies, SMEs or startups, more than four in five employers indicated that they started using virtual hiring only during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Further, 26 per cent employers considered virtual hiring a novel and surprisingly effective experience, and another 22 per cent believe that it is the right way forward, even while acknowledging its present challenges.

In terms of sectors, the study further shows that BPO/ITeS (95 per cent), media & entertainment (90 per cent) and telecom (87 per cent) are embracing new age technologies and hiring mostly through virtual means, while sectors dependent upon physical labour such as construction & real estate (98 per cent), manufacturing (97 per cent), agriculture (95 per cent) and retail (93 per cent) prefer face to face hiring methods only.

Employers from the financial services (91 per cent), marketing & advertising (89 per cent) and healthcare & pharma (87 per cent) prefer a more hybrid approach towards hiring. On the other hand, putting a face to a name still seems important as virtual interviews/video conferencing (29 per cent) emerged as the most favoured virtual hiring method by employers.

Flexibility and remote working has seen an obvious rise in 2020 with Indeed data showing a 362 per cent surge since March in searches for work-from-home (WFH) jobs on the site. Quoting a Gartner data, Kumar also said that even employers are adopting the trend with 80 per cent leaders permitting employees to be flexible. "This trend is pretty strong with new age companies, ITes, media, telecom, startups who are also more open to embracing new technologies," he added.

Meanwhile, with remote working, tier-2 and tier-3 geographies are also finding more takers in employers. "This does not apply to whole range of industries but wherever possible such as IT. We believe that companies will change the measurement of employee contribution in favour of output and not time," said Kumar.

Highlights

- While 47% hired only virtually, 1 in 3 used virtual and face-to-face methods

- 64% employers said safety was primary driver for hiring virtually

- 31% employers credited virtual hiring for wider access to talent

- 28% felt virtual hiring allowed for flexibility and convenience

- Nearly 1 in 5 employers said that virtual hiring reduced bias in the recruitment process.

- Nearly two in every five employers believe virtual hiring is here to stay post pandemic.