New Jobs And Trends In The Post Pandemic World

The world has shown some interesting cracks after the advent of covid-19, almost every meeting has actually become an email and many job roles that were considered to the only function in the office are now being efficiently handled from the confines of one’s home.

But then there are also strange phenomena rearing their heads, for example, how can there be a loss of over 25 million jobs and still be a shortage of people to fill jobs? It is simple, we do not have the skill sets necessary to match the jobs available. There are millions of people that are talented but have no work and are waiting for new hires. 

At the same time, there are industries, for example like e-commerce that can’t find ideal human resources to add to their supply chains. A primary reason for this has to do with the way recruitment patterns have changed during the pandemic especially in the light of budget cuts for new hires, firing excessively, and digitizing existing employees.

But before we can get into how one can be recruited today, it is important to understand the new trends brought about by Covid-19.

Estimated damage:

Industries across the board were expecting at least a 10% cut in their annual revenues across all sectors. This made it necessary for employers to not only freeze hiring and announce salary cuts but in severe cases, this also led to laying off of employees. Unfortunately with business travel, exports and imports severely impacted, even the future seems uncertain. 

There are some industries, however, based on online operations, (e-commerce and online education) that are booming. Things are also hopeful if you are in the FMCG or auto industry. 

Loss of jobs:

There is no doubt that in the post-pandemic world, millions of people have lost their jobs and due to hiring freezes, they are not finding new opportunities as well.  But it would be unfair to say that all sectors did badly. All industries or businesses based on e-commerce reported dramatic increases in businesses and even hiring. Companies like Amazon’s US wing hired at least an additional 100,000 employees during the corona crisis. 

Work from home:

Developed countries were already slowly moving towards working from home, which was just exacerbated by the pandemic. Social distancing measures have forced workplaces to decrease attendance. The process of adopting and adapting to work from home has just been quickened by the pandemic. 

As with all things, working from home also comes with challenges, especially for those in developing countries, lack of basic infrastructure, wifi, and sometimes physical space all affect output and its quality. Then there is also the lack of transparency in how work is being handled and an added barrier when it comes to communication. 

Not working for a single company:

Another interesting phenomenon to come out of the pandemic is how people are now opting to do what freelancers already knew how to do, work for diverse employers in two or more roles. Working from home has not only decreased working hours and the commute time needed to get to work, it is now also offering employees extra flexibility when it comes to who they work for and how much.  It is expected that freelance or consultant work may soon be more preferred instead of full-time jobs.

Foreign workforces:

In a series of unprecedented events in the world, many migrant workers were sent back to their countries in a bid to mitigate the spread of the virus. This exposed gaping holes in the demand and supply of workers. With many people deciding to not come back as they learned of the uncertainty involved, this may create bigger issues in the post-pandemic world when large workforces are normalized again. 

Online engagement:

Since communication is now online, there has been a sudden need to be tech-savvy no matter what career you talk about. Even doctors’ consults have shifted online, with some people having to make quick adjustments so they could shift online. Even though some MNCs would opt for online and even in some cases remote interviews, the practice is now being widely accepted even for jobs in the tech industry, which was not the norm. 

This has made the recruiting process a lot smoother and can also help potential employees and widen the net of people you could recruit. 

With these changes, some processes have indeed become more efficient but the lack of interpersonal interaction, especially for those jobs where personality is a major criterion, seems to be suffering more. Some of these changes may be here to stay while some may be discarded like the changes and adjustments made for the past pandemics and economic recessions. It may just be too early to say.

– Nida Khan