Recruitment in the times of pandemic – how we do it at Craftware?

New applicant’s profile: higher expectations, more fears

In the beginning, it seemed that the new situation would hinder organizations’ operations in all areas. With time, we can see the pandemic improved the functioning of organizations in many ways. There are industries and companies, like Craftware, that didn’t give up on active recruitment. Instead of this, increased the pace and looked for more new specialists.

It’s also obvious that expectations of applicants change; month after month, they are higher. It’s a bit of a paradox – with expectations growth, there’s insecurity related to making decisions about changing an employer.

Many people on the labor market are sort of pandemic victims. Applicants participate in the recruitment process because they are forced to look for new employment. Projects closing due to economic reasons, companies withdrawing from declarations of employee development, training budgets, and raises freezing – these are the arguments specified in job interviews in response to the question about motives of changing work.

As brutal as it sounds, it’s a chance for a recruiter to make the most of such an applicant’s potential. This is not easy and, above all, requires providing an applicant with a strong sense of security as well as stabilization. A person in the recruitment process often backs out upon receiving an offer, fearing that employer change is a change for the worse.

Recruitment process – what has changed?

The biggest changes are visible in the three areas of recruitment.

1. Target group of desired specialists

From the mountains or Mazury? It doesn’t matter! In Craftware’s case, it’s nothing new; however, many organizations opened themselves for applicants all over Poland (and the world). A place of employment is not narrowed down to a particular city anymore (usually a company headquarters). A new applicant profile emerged – a potential employee who is disciplined, independent, honest. For such a person, remote work is primarily a greater comfort, not the occasion to less engage in performed tasks, which is easy while working from home with many distractions around us.

2. Technical meetings

It turns out that the online mode is not an obstacle to getting to know a potential employee better. We can discuss experience, verify knowledge of the English language skills, and even run tests on paper. This form of meetings allows organizing the entire recruitment process more efficiently, which is a big plus. Planning meetings is quicker. The number of applicants invited to the process is higher than before the pandemic.

Online interviews require preparation just as interviews at the office – the factual preparation, a technical one, taking care of the surroundings and background, on both sides. However, it’s equally easier for a recruiter and applicant to find time for an online meeting. Yes, many organizations practiced such a form of the recruitment process before the pandemic, but it wasn’t that popular and obvious as it is now. Each applicant interested in a job offer knows they can get to know their future leader on the other side of the screen. And it’s nothing special. Potential employees don’t have to waste their time to get to an office. They fix their shirt, set an appropriate background, and that’s it, they are ready to start an interview. ?

What are the advantages? A whole lot of them! A person applies on Monday, and then, on Tuesday, we are already able to organize a meeting with a leader. By the end of the week, we often know the outcome of the recruitment process.

What are the disadvantages? Assessing soft skills without the ability of direct contact with an applicant can be a great challenge.

3. Remote onboarding

At Craftware, onboarding and employee induction happen remotely or in the office – it’s a matter of a new employee’s choice. Due to safety concerns, if an applicant prefers remote onboarding, we are fully prepared for that. Likewise, in the case of the traditional process – there’s a series of online meetings with leaders, managers, or representatives of particular departments.

The pandemic showed us that this form of onboarding works and doesn’t affect the work quality of a new employee, of course, if the online onboarding was effective and carefully thought-out.

There’s only one complication – a lack of the possibility of observing teammates while they work and learning from them, with their help and using their experience. It extends the process of employee induction.

New trend: “I want to retrain myself”

We observe yet another novelty in the recruitment area associated with the pandemic: applicants’ openness to retrain themselves or take lower positions.

It happens in the IT industry increasingly – an applicant’s resume not always matches a job profile. At Craftware, we don’t close the doors before such people, often inviting them to the recruitment process despite basic experience in IT. Beginners get the opportunity to grow with us – the Craftware Academy where we prepare for work with the Salesforce technology is addressed to them (though not only). Applicants are even more opened to challenges such as acquiring a great deal of knowledge and getting experience so that, with time, they could become experts in the previously unknown field.

Craftware also started with the program Retrain for Salesforce. Thanks to our support, developers with experience in object languages can change the development direction and acquire skills from the area of programming in Salesforce.

The practice has shown us how important it is to investigate the source of motivation behind retraining and the reasons for taking the lower job position than before. Frequently, it results from the market situation and the willingness to get to know something new, move forward, and run away from the sense of impasse. But it happens that the only motivation is financial aspects.

It’s understandable as finances are an important factor. However, if, for an applicant, it’s the only thing that matters, there’s a big risk that they will take without hesitation in the case of a better offer.

That is why we care so much for applicants focusing on growth mainly, improving knowledge, and successive building expert’s position in their specialty.

Summary

For over a year, most recruitment processes have been carried out remotely. We had time to deal with this, that’s how it is in life. ? The pandemic has proven to us that such a form has many advantages: it improves the process and speeds it up, allows getting to know the greater number of applicants in a shorter time, and still doesn’t affect the quality of the technical meetings or the onboarding process.

But is it that great in every aspect? For many, remote work has disadvantages: no direct contact with an employee or applicant, no morning coffee time spent together (and up until now, it was an everyday ritual), no casual small talks in the open space of the office.

Different strokes for different folks. For sure: a lot has changed not only in recruitment but also in the areas of organizations’ operation. And there are many signs that these changes will stay with us for good. ?