Recruitment guru Marc Sumner looks back at the challenges the IT channel has had to face as a result of the pandemic.
“In December 2019 I was very optimistic about the coming year.” – Marc Sumner
However, little did I know that a year later I would be sitting here thinking to myself that I am glad that 2020 is coming to an end!
Back in December 2019 I wrote an article for CRN.
Outlining what I thought the main trends would be for hiring managers to consider in the coming twelve months.
We concluded that these would be around:
• Talent attraction strategies, the use of social media
• Looking after employees mental health
• Hiring for a more diverse workforce
• Increasing importance attached to homeworking.
To be honest most of these rang very true in 2020!
However, I must admit I did not think it would be a pandemic that would lead to us all having to review and adapt our hiring strategies quite so quickly.
Changes that would usually take months/years of planning and execution had to be deployed within hours and days!
Called upon to help the nation adapt to ‘home working’ saw demand for technology solutions soar. Not only did the channel respond at speed but the creativity shown to deliver has been world class.
Helping people adapt to working from home has been a key component of the IT channel’s collective success this year. Companies have introduced virtual social nights and I think everybody attended at least one weekly ‘Zoom quiz’ during lockdown.
Despite people being miles apart, in some instances lockdown brought people and teams closer. This attitude of ‘we are all in this together’ has gone some way to help deal with the negative impact of lockdown on all our mental health. But there is definitely a lot we can learn on how we all communicate with each other and work together.
Most of the professionals that i speak to within the IT channel have confirmed that the channel has responded brilliantly. Planning and delivering the changes necessary to overcome the challenges of recruiting and in some cases redeploying/retraining employees.
As we look towards 2021, I am optimistic that all our lives will start to look at little more ‘normal’.
I for one am grateful to work in such a forward thinking and creative industry that when push comes to shove looks out for each other.
Long may that continue. By the way our predictions for hiring managers for 2021 will be out in the near future…watch this space
