As we grapple with the unprecedented crisis unfolding before us, we see a profound shift within the recruitment industry. The COVID-19 pandemic has moved the candidates away from the driving seat, inviting employers to the helm.

In an employer-driven market, it is the company that calls the shots in the recruitment process and has more qualified candidates to choose from.

Against the backdrop of the pandemic economy, more and more unemployed candidates were flocking to employers’ doors. On the flip side, those who retained their jobs through this crisis had to put in extra effort to live up to their employer’s expectations.

Here’s how you can take the advantage of a broad talent pool:

While recruiters find job boards and other channels inundated with CVs, they need to cut down on the number of unqualified applicants to be able to easily shortlist the best of the best.

For a starting point, when looking to recruit candidates in an employer-driven market, tweak your job ads so that they speak more directly to the kind of talent you need. Here’s one thing you may do. Run an A/B test. Create two different ads for the same role and then test the effectiveness of content by tracking the results.

Another way to find the right candidate in an employer-driven market is by using the power of video. Using pre-recorded video clips for interviews is a great way to streamline recruiting efforts, reduce time to fill and decrease cost per hire.       

That’s not just it, video interviewing eliminates the hassle of scheduling multiple meetings, taking a lot of work off the recruiter’s plate. They allow talent acquisition professionals to refer back to the video whenever needed. Moreover, pairing interviews with resumes and digital assessments gives hiring managers a deeper insight into the applicant’s personality and culture fit.   

One of the biggest things that discourages candidates from continuing their application process and working their way till the submission checkpoint is the complicated and time-consuming process.

A complex process compels applicants to leave their application midway and opt out. However, with a streamlined recruitment process, you can encourage more applicants to apply, which in turn enables you to have a larger pool of candidates to choose from.

As economy begins to recover, many companies continue with their hiring activities to maintain business continuity and launch new growth initiatives.

In the current times of rapid change and the employer-driven market, organizations need to keep their business agile with soft skills such as flexibility, adaptability and resilience. For this reason, hiring professionals don’t need to only hire people for technical skills but also soft skills. And how can they do that? By tailoring the different parts of recruitment journey such as resume screening process, interview questions and mainly the pre-employment assessments.