New Women Who Code Event – Recruitment during lockdown
About Women who Code
- Our mission:
Inspire women to excel in technology careers
- Our Vision:
A world where women are proportionally represented as technical leaders, executives, founders, VCs, board members, and software engineers
- We had a great discussion on Recruitment during lockdown, getting perspectives from a candidate, a recruiter and an employer as well as many Women in Tech!
- Firstly, we discussed ways in which many of us are keeping focused working from home each day, some handy tips include:
- Using Headspace to meditate, making lists and sticking to them, yoga, exercise and movement, having a clean and tidy workspace also acknowledging when you may be getting restless / needing a break.
Candidate experience of remote interviewing and remote on-boarding – this has been on the whole a positive experience
- Video calls went smoothly and it was great to be able to have a preparation document near by for reference
- Another positive of the video interview is that the candidate does not have to stress about travelling to the office/interview location
- However, not having a proper home office could potentially have a negative impact when interviewing for a job
- There is a significant difference in not being able to be in the office with new colleagues, in order to meet them and build relationships in the same way, however one of the great initiatives mentioned was by using Donut on Slack - you would be randomly paired with a colleague who you would be able to get to know better over a virtual coffee
From a recruitment point of view (Bright Purple Resourcing) the trends in the market from March 2020 were discussed, from the roles and skillsets we have seen a requirement for, the industries hiring and the trend with market rates.
- Contract roles were hit initially, going on hold very quickly, the hospitality, travel and tourism and oil and gas industries were heavily affected
- Day rates significantly dropped (circa 20%) due to the lack of demand and increased supply for contractors
- When it was realised this wasn’t a short term issue, permanent roles were then put on hold and a number of contract roles were released due to there being less commitment involved
- From August onwards we have noticed the trend of more and more permanent roles being released, particularly within in industries such as; MedTech, Cloud, Network , Cyber security, utilities and ecommerce
- Remote on-boarding has continued to happen over the last few months – everyone is currently working from home but we are seeing many companies offering more flexible and remote working for when things become safer
- There was also a brief summary on CV, application and interview hints and tips as well as wellbeing, self care and resilience in these uncertain times
We heard from an employer on what they are doing during the recruitment and selection process during Covid19.
- Some key points included:
- A more informal recruitment process has been working well, in order to make things more personal and authentic. The goal is to make each stage of the process as personal and tailored as possible
- A trend that was also identified was people were more flexible in taking calls as everyone is at home at the moment and people can do a job hunt from home
- Recruitment teams have been going above and beyond to make the process Pandemic proof – providing as much information as possible on the process and how best to prepare; information on topics and hiring mangers to research.
- The key to this being a successful recruitment campaign has been communication - information shared regularly, especially on next steps and the candidate’s needs being identified and accommodated for
- Candidates are even more anxious and keen to hear back when they’ve applied for a role at the moment
- Things are getting better now as lockdown is easing
Question and answer session on:
- Remote working in the future, we are seeing more and more flexible working and remote working – around 2 – 3 days per week from home
- Advice for women returning to the workplace after being out for a while – have a very specific cover note detailing circumstances as well detailing on your CV any learning and development or personal projects you have completed
- Diversity and Inclusion - and the very real awakening and awareness of this – talking about referrals and the danger that these might be for “people just like you”
- With video interviews there may be more of a judgement as you can see in people’s homes; it may be another element for (unconscious) bias.
- There was a great example shared of an entire workforce completing diversity and inclusion training, with those involved in recruitment having even more of a focus on this
- A fantastic quote we heard on the night was “Culture add rather than fit”
- We all need to be aware and mindful of the value diversity brings
- There is a lot of research that shows that the bottom line improves when you have a diverse workforce. There is a real danger in just hiring people that are just like you - you might be missing out on a lot of talent.
- Tools that may help – such as HackerRank exercises and code tests
- Women in tech approaching senior members of the business to get a better insight – asking them if they are open to having a conversation
- Rejected from promotion – although incredibly tough to hear sometimes – it can at times be really good feedback and work in you favour – make sure you get as much feedback as possible and focus on where you can develop
Lousie Millar
09/09/2020
Share:
