Worry that furloughed staff will not return to work

Three-quarters of HR managers and CEOs do not believe employees who have been furloughed will return to their job due to career changes and health concerns.

This research comes from Occupop, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered software that helps HR and hiring managers to reduce time spent on candidate screening, found that 75 per cent of HR managers and CEOs do not think furloughed staff will return to work.

Over a quarter (28 per cent) are under the impression staff will not return due to health concerns and there is a big feeling that employees will use their furloughed time to change careers.

Over a third (38 per cent) believe recruitment activity will increase by 25 per cent in the coming months, regardless of COVID-19. This was backed up by 69 per cent of HR managers and CEOs saying they are open to making the entire hiring process completely remote.

Also, 74 per cent are happy to accommodate a combination of on-site and remote work where possible to make sure they attract the best talent.

Caroline Gleeson, co-founder of Occupop said:

The ‘future of work’ has been a popular topic and trend for the previous few years with many companies saying they plan to digitise their HR and recruitment processes but not actually investing in this transformation. COVID-19 has sped up this transformation with many companies forced to undertake these processes essentially overnight and we are now in the ‘now of work’.

Outside of the advantages of companies digitising and going paperless, there is an added advantage to this shift and the adoption of remote working as it opens up the talent pools for many companies to hire outside of their office radius. It is great to see companies embrace the ‘now of work’, digitise and improve their candidate base significantly.

In order to gather these results, Occupop spoke to a mix of 103 HR professionals and CEOs.

 

 

 

 

Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.