The coronavirus crisis has impacted the world economy severely, the Indian economy has not been immune to it either. Like every industry sector, the staffing industry too has been affected deeply by the COVID-19 outbreak and the subsequent lockdowns. As most businesses started operating remotely during the lockdown, a clear trend emerged in majority of the organizations either putting a recruitment freeze in place or shifting start dates for contractual workforce.

We are maintaining a positive outlook for the staffing industry during Unlock 2.0. The industry is expected to make up gradually for the lost momentum during the lockdown period, and may bounce back relatively quickly once the outbreak has ended. With the changes taking place across the globe in operating procedures, the demand is expected to see a surge in the coming months as businesses across the globe try to resume normal operations. Industries like Financial Services, Healthcare, & E-Commerce will be at the forefront of the forward momentum, and the IT/ITES sector is going to recover quickly as well.

Many organizations have fundamentally altered their operating methodology, ‘Work From Home’ for a longer duration in the future is a reality. Even during the unlock stage, many employees across industry sectors will continue to work from home until the pandemic goes away to a large extent. and companies have already started working towards creating a more robust remote working plan and infrastructure. To facilitate this, demand within the IT/ITES sector for niche skills including workforce experienced in remote working capabilities, cloud technology and data security specifically will increase.

In the long term some positive and innovative changes can be expected within the otherwise traditional staffing industry. Some of these changes will include - part of the interview and also the onboarding processes moving online, greater utilization of recruitment tools and technology, positive changes in employee benefits, availability of flexibility and remote working options, a workforce focused on openly and actively re-skilling, and more frugality in overall spending with a more long-term focus on recruitment strategy and budgets. Businesses have had to adapt quickly in light of the pandemic and it is a real possibility that in the post COVID-19 scenario, the landscape of the staffing industry might be altered permanently.

Now as the economy is starting to open up, I am optimistic that the worst is behind us.