Been Coping in an Uncertain Era?
Finding: Most employers began doing
more remote interviews in response to the pandemic
In early 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic struck the world. Within a matter of weeks, many business operations were disrupted as nations adopted social distancing strategies in an effort to slow the spread of the virus. Not only did this drive many businesses to adopt remote work arrangements as never before, but it also changed talent acquisition practices in many organizations.
Economic slowdowns accompanied the pandemic, which contributed to less recruitment activity in some organizations. But even among employers where recruitment efforts did not slow (or, indeed, ramped up as in certain essential service industries such as healthcare), organizations often adopted remote hiring strategies to maintain social distancing.
In fact, “began doing more interviews virtually” is the clear strategy when we asked survey participants, “Which of the following talent acquisition actions has your organization taken as a result of the global pandemic and related events?”
Although this is the most widely selected action, it is by no means the only one. Less than a quarter of respondents (22%) say that they have taken no talent acquisition actions in response to the pandemic.
Aside from conducting more virtual interviews, the next three most commonly cited actions have been:
● implemented new technologies to handle remote hiring issues
● changed recruitment messaging
● adopted modified assessment processes 7
The State of Applicant Tracking Systems 2020
www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2020
Survey Question: Which of the following talent acquisition actions has your organization taken as a result of the global pandemic and related events? (select all that apply) Began doing more
60%
interviews virtually
Implemented new technologies to
24%
handle remote hiring issues
Changed recruitment messaging
22%
Adopted modified
20%
assessment processes
Adjusted talent pooling strategy
18%
Began hiring more remote,
14%
non-local candidates
Made adjustments to cope with
14%
more applications
Reconfigured applicant tracking
11%
systems (ATS) in some way
Started accepting more applications
10%
from non-local applicants
Modified the candidate-
6%
profile-building feature
We have taken no
22%
particular actions
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
8
The State of Applicant Tracking Systems 2020
www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2020
Finding: Video conferencing platforms and electronic signatures applications have become more common
Among employers that have taken TA actions in response to the pandemic, most have adopted video conferencing platforms and electronic signature applications. This is expected, as these solution technologies are fairly easy to implement and can be seen as “low hanging fruit.” Meanwhile, nearly a fifth (17%) adopted a diversity and inclusion solution that is intended to remove or reduce unintended bias in the recruitment process.
Survey Question: Aside from possible features included with your ATS, what third-party recruitment-related solution technologies has your organization adopted in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, economic slowdowns and/or protest movements?
Video conferencing
89%
platform (e.g., Zoom)
Electronic signature
56%
(e.g., DocuSign, Adobe)
Diversity and inclusion
solution to remove
17%
unintended bias
Enhanced top-of-
funnel filtering and/or
13%
matching tools
0
20
40
60
80
100
9
The State of Applicant Tracking Systems 2020
www.hr.com | 877-472-6648 | copyright © HR.com 2020
