Pandemic Ushers in Employee and Workplace Changes

If your company is looking to hire workers this year, you may find job candidates are more open to different opportunities and have taken time to update their skills. However, many of today’s job seekers insist on job flexibility, including the opportunity to work remotely.

Results from a recent CareerBuilder survey, released a month after the smallest number of jobs was  added to the U.S. economy in seven months, finds job seekers are becoming more open to opportunities outside their current roles. One-third of the survey respondents said that too much competition for jobs hampered their chances of finding a new position, and they needed to find methods to stand out from the millions of displaced workers.

The survey, which was conducted to examine the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on job seekers, found that nearly 84% of individuals are willing to take job opportunities outside their current roles.

The survey also found:

• One-quarter of respondents said the most challenging part of the job search was finding positions in their field
• 61% said they reconsidered their current roles
• 75% said they dedicated time to learning a new skill or completing an online education program during the pandemic.
• Nearly 88% said they were actively searching for work
• 23% had filed for unemployment.
• One-quarter said they strongly preferred flexible hours as a benefit included in a job offer
• 35% said they would turn down an offer if it didn’t allow the possibility to work remotely.

“Companies should commit to reskilling efforts too, to improve how they recruit and retain candidates for the long-term,” said Sasha Yablonovsky, CareerBuilder president. “They need to take a skills-based approach to hiring and give more weight to this than past experience.”