Top 5 Staffing Trends for Businesses to Bounce Back and Build Resilience Post-Covid

It all started suddenly. Yet, it will take a long time to truly be over. Maybe even the predicted third wave will slow the speed of returning to near-normality. In a short span of less than a year, Virus, Oxygen Concentrators, Vaccinations, have all become household words and topics of heated discussions. Coronavirus, Novel Coronavirus, Covid-19, Covid, or the many other names it has been called, this pandemic has truly united the world akin to the Great Wars in the first half of the previous century.

Notwithstanding the impact of this pandemic on our lives and the limitations of a hyper-globalised society, the Indian job market has quickly adapted itself to and evolved its own mechanisms to survive and, in pockets, grow. While standardisation may not be the answer and is not going to replace Diversification anytime soon, a balanced ‘smart’ approach between the two extremes seems to have emerged. Job market purveyors – employers, jobseekers, and the talent supply chain – have cherry picked job roles that don’t just enable them to tide over the imminent crisis but are worth rewarding handsomely with. The third wave may not be as severe as the first or even the second wave but, as far as the job markets are concerned, the preparation for the not-so-completely unknown adversary is nearly complete. It is time, therefore, for organisations across the country to evolve fast.

Staffing across industries needs to evolve beyond regular growth. Some organisations see the benefits in having a reasonable part of their staff continue to work from home, while others have had to adopt digital practices in a hurry. Things have changed, and they will remain changed for a long time to come. But the ‘new normal’ no longer seems to be a bad thing, and the job market has gone on to prove that the most evolutionary progress generally takes place during periods of extreme stress.

During the study of the ‘Jobs and Salaries Primer 2021’ report, our annual report on the state and staffing industry trends, this belief has been further reinforced by data. There are many industry-specific trends that the report highlights, some of which are imperative for businesses to understand and be ready for to make their transition to the new order less painful. During this study, a few key insights came to light that we think are absolutely critical for businesses to bounce back quickly and build resilience for the future.