'Recruitment changes that would have taken years took days'

Channel Recruitment guru Marc Sumner looks back at the challenges the IT channel has had to face in the face of the pandemic

At the start of this year 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:

• Talent attraction strategies, the use of social media
• Looking after employee's mental health
• Hiring for a more diverse workforce
• Increasing importance attached to homeworking.

To be honest most of these have rung very true this year! However, I must admit I did not think it would be a pandemic that would lead to us all to review and adapt our hiring strategies quite so quickly.

Changes that would usually take months or 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 instance's 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 of 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 say the channel has responded brilliantly in terms of 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 of 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 shov,e looks out for each other. Long may that continue.

By the way of predictions for hiring managers for 2021 will be out in the near future...watch this space.

Marc Sumner is CEO of Robertson Sumner