Companies planning to hire new staff must have likely experienced the term “The Great Resignation.” Due to the pandemic situations, many employees resigned while serving a notice period of two weeks, placing further strain on the unparalleled demand on hiring needs.
The impact of the pandemic started with layoffs, making it difficult to find employment. However, it has shifted gears now to a hard-to-hire environment, creating many changes and challenges for the American job market.
Hybrid Workforce Model:
With declining covid-19 cases and with full vaccination support, companies started to think of reopening offices and getting back to regular life. Some companies have announced their goal as a return to the office with uncut capacity. Others have already decided to stay fully remote even after the pandemic ends. The majority, however, have opted to go with the Hybrid Workforce Model that allows both remote and onsite work – indicating the hybrid workforce will be the new normal.
With the hybrid workforce model, the challenges are likely to grow to effectively set up, manage and run the business operations across time zones. Training employees on the newly deployed online tools, tracking work, and simultaneously onboarding candidates remotely will remain crucial.
It’s important to continually learn and improve processes to fine solution that fits your business needs.
Demand for hiring in the logistics and warehousing industry:
The e-commerce sector saw a dramatic rise in its share of all retail sales during the pandemic. It pushed the boundaries and created an unprecedented demand for delivery jobs. The significant hiring within the logistics and warehousing industry changed the entire game while online deliveries increased.
Adzuna’s data reveals the jobs in this sector have grown 296%, whereas trade and construction jobs boom 110% compared to pre-pandemic Jan 2020 levels. Other sectors, like healthcare and nursing, have suffered high burnout levels, contributing to the high turnover of staff over the last year. On the other side, pandemic restrictions had a notable impact on industries like airlines, salons, bars, and restaurants but are still hiring at depressed volumes.
Employees’ demands
Employees started to demand additional workplace benefits.
The school closures and compulsory hours of working from home required employers to support the employees dealing with children and other caring needs.
Research shows the 50 million Americans, or one-third of the working population, have a child under 14 in their household. Companies are already responding to this with childcare measures. Amazon offered backup childcare to employees throughout the pandemic. This trend looks set to continue. Better childcare provision must come along with hybrid working if increased flexibility is to benefit all employees equally.
Demand for Digital Skills
In the present scenario, to be successful in operating business, online digital skills are the key. The surge of teleworking and digitization under the sectors like healthcare, retail, and sales created the need for workers with digital skills across diverse companies.
Simultaneously, the demand for experts in particular disciplines like digital marketing, social media, data science, and cybersecurity has multiplied. These roles have not required a relevant college degree, but the digital transformation required workers to learn through on-job training.
As companies look toward a hybrid or remote work model, understanding the technology to operate various tools associated with these models is crucial to ensure an effective work-from-home model. Digital skills, indeed, will be quite in demand.
Upskilling & Reskilling:
Adzuna’s data shows over 2.4 million vacancies open to those without a college degree – that’s over half of the jobs currently on offer.
The hiring focus shifted from a relevant college degree to relevant skills. Learning new skills is likely to be the key to future success.
There is a massive opportunity for upskilling and reskilling U.S. workers, companies are paying more attention to pushing upskilling and reskilling workers to widen their talent pool.
It’s important for business leaders to focus on reskilling and upskilling the existing workforce to deliver new business models in the post-pandemic era. Workers should figure out how to quickly adapt to new skills & companies must know how to match those skills to the new roles and activities. Getting started on reskilling programs will make organizations and employees better prepared for potential future role disruption.
