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RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PRACTICES POST COVID-19: A STEP TOWARDS

SUSTAINABILITY

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International Journal of Advance and Innovative Research
ISSN 2394 - 7780
Volume 8, Issue 2 (III) April - June 2021 Part - 2

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION PRACTICES POST COVID-19: A STEP TOWARDS

SUSTAINABILITY

Shipra Agrawal
Research Scholar, University of Allahabad

ABSTRACT
The coronavirus pandemic has become one of the greatest accelerators for transforming workplace witnessing
a historic shift in the job market. While some companies used to follow such practices, the pandemic forced
others to change their ways of doing work. Many such changes have been seen in the recruitment and selection
practices of the organisations. Moreover, an organisation with sustainable practices results in better human
capital, organisational reputation and competitive advantage. The paper highlights these emerging trends in
recruitment and selection and examines how it has helped organisations to step ahead towards sustainability. A
very common practice which the pandemic forced in the talent acquisition arena is remote working. With
lockdowns imposed, employees could not travel to workplace. Remote working emerged as a major shift with
people working from home. Moreover, transformation and automation became quite common with
technological digitisation on the rise. Use of artificial intelligence and chat bots to deal with repetitive tasks
will become more useful. Diversity, equity and inclusion could be seen as recruiters have greater flexibility in
hiring candidates from any geographical area. Finally, sophisticated measures in virtual hiring through video
interviews and virtual fairs will help in better hiring and candidate experience. Although tough, these measures
have positively impacted the HR industry and led towards sustainability in terms of less traffic and clean air,
saving costs, use of less energy, achieving equity, moving towards paperless work. The study also identifies the
challenges these practices have in terms of company culture, loss of human touch and security issues. However,
recommendations have been provided to overcome such issues. With proper security measures, putting an
empathetic touch in automation and communicating and training would help organisations minimise such
issues.
Keywords: Recruitment and selection, sustainability, work from home, remote working, diversity, automation,
virtual hiring, sustainable HRM practice, and artificial intelligence.

1. INTRODUCTION
The COVID-19 pandemic has forced organisations to adopt new ways of working or even transform themselves
to survive. To ensure business continuity, many difficult decisions have been taken by businesses. The HR
professionals had a tough time as the pandemic acted as a change agent making them recruit virtually and
allowing them include diversity. Whether it is managing employees working at home, making changes in
recruitment and selection trends, creating stronger culture or adopting innovative processes to boost HR
functions, human resource professionals had to made several changes in their approach (Meister, 2021).
Although tough, such measures positively impacted the overall HR industry. This paper specifically delves into
the recruitment and selection practices adopted by organisations during the pandemic which is going to shape
up the future. Sustainability has always been an important aspect and the emerging practices of recruitment and
selection will help the HR in attaining it. The paper therefore evaluates the measures adopted by the talent
acquisition leaders in the time of pandemic which will help in attaining sustainability in the future. However,
with every measure and practice comes certain challenges for which suitable recommendations have been
provided.
2. SUSTAINABLE RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
An organisation to be ecologically sustainable and socially just post crisis is built on networks that create value
for and with stakeholders along with protecting natural environment (Ludeke-
Petzall (2013) defines sustainability as the way an organisation reflects social norms regarding its resources, its
future and the environment which is embedded in its culture and practices. Sustainable HRM practices can be
defined as the adaptation of HRM strategies and practices that enables them to achieve financial, social and
ecological goals of an organisation in long term (Kramar, 2014). Recruitment and selection being one of the
most visible functions of the HR acts as the external boundary scanner to potential candidates and is the
gateway for the new employees. This function is responsible not only for economic sustainability rather
accountable for environmental and societal aspects as well.
Studies have confirmed that candidates get attracted to organisations who have better reputation and perform
social actions. This is because it indicates fairness and provide them an evidence of a positive impact on
employee well-being, stress, health, job satisfaction and positive emotion. Hence, focusing on sustainability
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Volume 8, Issue 2 (III) April - June 2021 Part - 2

from a recruitment and

attracting the best employees who are ready to participate in organisational sustainability endeavours (Jepsen
and Grob, 2015). The recent pandemic has enabled organisations to adopt several new ways and selecting the
ones which enhance the overall sustainability will help them provide a better image, human capital and
competitive advantage.
3. EMERGING TRENDS IN RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
3.1 Remote working
Remote working has emerged out as one of the major shifts in the HR arena. Due to lockdowns imposed in
almost every country to curb COVID-19, work from home became a trend as people could not travel to work.
According to Gartner survey, 74% of the organisations are planning to permanently shift their employees to
remote work. Many companies like Twitter, Square, Facebook, etc. have already asked their employees to work
remotely. Such arrangements would require less office space leading to cost-effective measures for the company
(Castrillon, 2020). Moreover, organisations can access new pools of candidates in several locations. Earlier, in a
smaller geographic location, they created smaller candidate pool. Now if a job fits a type of situation, managers
can hire them remotely (Boland et al., 2020). This would help them access skillsets and individuals that may be
previously would not be considered. A research by McKinsey reveals that 80% employees enjoy working from
home and more than 40% feel they have better productivity (Boland et al., 2020). This is because they are free
from long travel and commutes, thus spending the saved time in a better way. Moreover, they enjoyed greater
flexibility in maintaining work-life balance and preferred work from of home than office.
All such measures would have positive impact on the environment. For instance, the lockdown imposed in 2020
due to the pandemic decreased the electricity demand, fuel supply and harmful emissions like nitrous oxides,
particulate matter and carbon di-oxide in several countries. Moreover, traffic congestion reduced worldwide
(Mousazadeh et al., 2021). Similarly, remote working would help enabling better sustainability. Not only will it
help the employees financially and socially, the measure will be environmentally beneficial. Less use of office
space would require less electricity demand and similarly, limited commutation would result in decreased traffic
congestion and harmful emissions. Hence, remote working will help the HR towards better sustainability
management.
However, hiring remote employees and onboarding them remotely has their own challenges. HR departments
need to screen candidate who work remotely, interview and assess the skills of the candidates virtually and
convey company culture by organising virtual recruiting and training process. Similarly, cybersecurity will be a
huge concern. The way data being accessed and how secured it is will be a challenge and hence organisations
would need to think strategically about cybersecurity investments to protect data, workers and equipment.
3.2 Transformation and automation
With forced remote hiring, technology adoption became quite necessary and common. Artificial intelligence
deals with design of intelligent machines and the understanding of intelligence such learning, comprehension of
spoken and written language, reasoning, or decision-making (Yigitcanlar and Cugurullo, 2020). Sanchez-
Monedero et al. (2020) confirm that artificial intelligence helps recruiters in automating recruitment and
selection process by sourcing, tracking, screening and selecting them in a more objective and egalitarian way.
For instance, applicant tracking software are being used in the talent acquisition process. 80% of the business
leaders revealed that they are automating their work processes by investing in applicant tracking system
(Jobvite, 2015). The software has features like resume parsing, resume storage, keyword searching, automated
email customisation and filters like location, source of the application, when it was applied and so on. Other
advanced systems include employee onboarding, offer letter generation, automated interview scheduling,
reporting and analytics and intelligent candidate matching (Jobvite, 2015). Such measures help organisations in
easier candidate evaluation by resume parsing and disqualifying non-suitable candidates; faster hiring processes
by automating repetitive and time-
allowing internal collaboration and real-time input and getting top candidates locked in with an offer quickly;
decrease cost per hire by eliminating redundancies; and provide greater accessibility to the recruiters. In other
words, loss of productivity, data, suitable candidates and wrong hires are the result of not having such
automation software (LinkedIn, n.d). Alternatively, it is helps in improving choice making in recruitment
procedures by removing the issues humans are facing.
Similarly, chat bots are yet other automation tool which help in better candidate experience. Whatever questions
the job job-seekers have, they can refer to the chat bots. It provides updates to the candidates in real-time. Also,
bots help in asking pre-qualifying questions related to job and providing updates, feedback and next-step
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suggestions. This makes the process more efficient and adds value as repetitive tasks are minimised. It becomes
a platform for letting recruiters to do other things that only human can do (Nawaz and Gomes, 2019).
Similarly, digitised interview technology records interviews of the candidates and assesses factors like speech
patterns, word choices and facial expressions improving quality of hire and providing additional data if the
candidate fits the company culture and job requirements.
Recruiting fundamentally about humans, talking to humans, persuading them to do things leads to resistance
about automation as they feel they might lose the human touch. Moreover, getting buy-in on the plan and
budget becomes a challenge. Moreover, such automation requires training of employees on new technological
platforms.
3.3 Diversity, equity and inclusion
Economic inequality and racial injustice have come to forefront in recent years. In addition, the pandemic as
well as the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement pushed companies to adapt diversity, equity and inclusion
more than ever before. Companies are increasingly building workforce by freelance and contingent
employment. With the concept of remote work and reduced budgets, companies have much more flexibility
than earlier. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) as the societal role of employers has grown. Diversity
includes the workforce regardless of their age, language, geographical regions, attitude, religion, gender and
caste (Saxena, 2014). Many organisations are making it a top priority now. Moreover, candidates make learned
choice for selecting organisations with DE&I commitment. Many studies have confirmed that diverse team
outperform more than homogeneous groups and have the ability to generate 20-30% more revenue and 35%
profit (Cletus et al., 2018). Diversity and inclusion brings varied experiences and thoughts in the organisation
inspiring increased innovation and creativity. It makes organisations more flexible making them acquire best
talent and help in better problem-solving (Mittal, 2019).
A multi-generational workforce is the future of an organisation. Older employees might be less innovative or
hesitant to change but they tend to be loyal, reliable, open minded and productive. They can lead the team easily
as they years of expertise (SHRM, 2017). Similarly, millennials are tech-savvy as they have grown up in the
digital age becoming competitive advantage for the company. They are eco-aware, confident, optimistic,
socially-conscious, work in teams and have a more holistic approach (Kaifi et al., 2012). Similarly, studies have
shown that women in C-suite or on the boards have given more profitable businesses. This means different
people will help organisations in achieving better productivity and sustained goals.
Organisations face challenges with diverse workforce in terms of ethnic and cultural differences, generation
gaps and communication issues which make them little reluctant (Cletus et al., 2018). Moreover, despite such
inclusion has been on the rise for years, unconscious bias is still prevalent and can manifest in several ways like
recruiters judging resume inaccurately.
Artificial intelligence and chatbots helps in identifying sources of conflict and inequality, thereby potentially
reducing discriminatory challenges and hiring bias. Explicitly adapting AI-based algorithms and modifying data
preparation process helps in avoiding biases during the selection process as done by the human recruiters thus
stepping towards sustainability (Vinuesa et al., 2020).

sustainability is equity, environment and economy and this equity overlaps with the concept of DE&I clearly.
3.4 Increased sophistication in virtual hiring
With remote working, increased sophistication could be seen in virtual hiring. Despite lack of planning,
employers have shifted to it. From videoconferencing to digital collaboration, many effective technologies were
adapted. Platforms such as Teams, Zoom and Google Hangouts are much used now. Video interviewing became
more common in this pandemic and recruiters have been realising its advantages more clearly. Job interviews
will be conducted virtually in the longer run. It provides efficiency as it is convenient for both the employers as
well as employees. Moreover, streamline assessments in the form of sending the interview question to the pool
for recording their answers could be used. The hiring process becomes easier with recorded videos shared
among teams, thus eliminating scheduling delays by enhancing collaboration (Hiring Thing, 2020).
Moving from traditional career and trade fairs, organisations can organise virtual career fairs which would have
several advantages. Traditional fairs used to be very costly consuming a large share of the promotional budgets.
Virtual fairs on the other hand, being the necessity of the current times, emerged as one of successful ways to
connect with candidates. It enables both employer and candidate branding (LinkedIn), helps in conducting
psychometric tests to pre-screen candidates and live interactions with conferencing software (Vik et al., 2018).
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Moreover, virtual hiring would enable technology to enhance work processes. This would contribute to
paperless processes. From advertising vacancies, receiving applicant resume, online interview, letter of offer,
employment contracts to web based induction processes, everything will continue to be online making the
overall process more sustainable (Jespen and Grob, 2015). Additionally, hiring bias would be reduced
maintaining equity in the process and virtual fairs will save cost, time and energy leading the practice towards
sustainability.
However, it has certain limitations too. Humans being social species might need a direct, in-person connection

challenge recruiter would face.

4. RECOMMENDATIONS
As company culture with remote working might get hampered, HR professionals need to take necessary actions
to maintain it. For this, they can organise weekly, fortnightly or monthly gathering and happy hours where
different employees could come together and companies make them recognise and maintain culture.
Communicatin
be helpful. Additionally using video calls for better colleague experience and inclusivity of employees becomes
crucial (Cook, 2020). Training them virtually about the cross cultural settings and company culture would be
advantageous.
Another challenge with remote working is cybersecurity. Being other business processes around them
automated, talent acquisition leaders should automate their recruitment processes. However, organisations shall
enable multi-factor authentication wherever possible to add security. Encrypted network connection shall be
used in VPN solutions. Password protection, installing antispam and antivirus software would help in
maintaining security (Georgiadou et al., 2021).
Technologies and processes have made automated communication which lacks hum touch. Hence professionals
must ensure that their content and messaging should have empathy. A message shall be developed in a way that
it has empathy and humanity effect in it making employees feel more connected to the organisation.
5. CONCLUSION
With the pandemic hitting almost all over the world, the way of carrying out businesses have changed.
Similarly, with social distancing and lockdown guidelines, people had to stay home and hence HR got deeply
affected. However, quite many things turned out to be positive. The remote working helped employers in saving
office space and costs along and employees with less commutation saving their time. HR transformed and
automated more than ever before. With technologies like artificial intelligence and chat bots, they saved a lot of
time and achieved better efficiency. Diversity, inclusion and equity is yet another practice that increased with
the pandemic. Employers now have more flexibility as the work is remote and therefore can hire anyone
anywhere. Finally, virtual hiring is the future and managers are using more sophisticated tools like video
conferencing, digital collaboration and virtual fairs. All this has helped HR in moving towards sustainability by
acquiring equity, better economy and environment. Technology is the key in HR, however, organisations must
carefully use it. They shall ensure security by multi-layer authentication, installing antispam and antivirus

Finally human touch is very important and hence a balance between automated processes and affective
component shall be maintained.
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