What's been going on this week? 22nd May

Happy Friday!

A round-up of thinking, news, and interesting things for your morning coffee break. 

At TMP:

• Deloitte, Capgemini, Civil Service Fast Stream and RSM UK share their experiences of virtual assessment centres
• We’ve supported Virgin Media by designing a virtual interview process from scratch. In the first 4 weeks we delivered 5,500 new applications, assessed 1,800 online video interviews, instigated 400 final stage qualification calls and made nearly 300 offers
• We’ve had some amazing feedback on the video interviewing we’re doing for the Scottish Prison Service this week. 43 have completed the satisfaction survey so far with an average score of 4.3/5. Assessors have shared that the pass rate is currently 69% (up from 50% face to face)
• We’ve pulled together all our virtual hiring factsheets in one place as a handy resource

In the UK:

• UK unemployment surges to 1.3million
• The FT reports that ‘Radical measures’ are required: how Covid-19 has hit UK labour market
• Two in five, or 40%, of employers are planning to recruit in the three months to July 2020
• While 2/3 of colleges and universities in the US say they are planning for in-person classes in autumn, Cambridge University has become the first UK higher education institution to move to online-only for the entire 2020-2021 academic year.
• More than 50,000 RBS staff to work from home until at least September
• The virus has changed shopping forever says M&S boss
• Thousands of Citigroup workers in Britain will enjoy an extended bank holiday weekend after the American company gave them an extra day off for working “harder than ever” during the coronavirus crisis

In the wider world:

• Nearly 39m Americans have lost their jobs in the past nine weeks

Things I’ve liked this week:

• MSCI have started doing Virtual Open Days to reach an unlimited number of prospective candidates and provide insight into day to day life

Thoughts:

• Virtual events/open days present an opportunity for candidates to be more flexible/able to attend and allows them to be anonymous – no risk of a colleague spotting them!
• Workforce planning is a challenge when organisations don’t know what skills they’ll need – perhaps focus on recruiting for mindset and learning agility?
• Brands and employers look to be more human in their comms to build trust
• With shopping habits changing forever, many companies will need to invest in tech talent to manage the transformation to online

Finally. . . UK beer gardens could host distanced drinking from 4th July!!