75% of companies not expecting furloughed staff to return

New research from recruitment platform Occupop has revealed the majority of employers believe they will lose furloughed staff permanently due to career changes and health concerns that have arisen since the pandemic first took hold.

Occupop’s 2020 HR Benchmark Report found that 75 per cent of HR managers and CEOs feel furloughed staff will not return to work once their company has reopened fully.

In addition to this, the study also revealed 27.5 per cent feel that staff might not go back due to health concerns. Another area of concern was that employees may use their time off as a means of changing career which could result in higher competition.

The report also found that:

— 37.5% of respondents think recruitment will increase by 25% in the coming months despite COVID-19

— 69% of HR Managers and CEOs said they would be open to hiring and completing the recruitment process completely remotely

— 74 per cent of respondents are happy to accommodate a combination of on-site and remote work where possible, to ensure they are attracting top talent

These findings indicate a significant overhaul of the future of work and the recruitment space. In addition to this, the figures demonstrate many companies are now adopting new strategies to continue the transition to a hybrid working model, which will enable staff to work both in the office and remotely.

Likewise, a recent study by Amárach Research for Fórsa trade union found that 86 per cent of respondents were interested in working remotely, while over 80 per cent of those favour a hybrid working arrangement. The transition to digitising workplaces, adopting new tools and going paperless was also prevalent in the report, with Zoom and Microsoft teams the platforms of choice for maintaining effective communications.

To read the full text of Occupop’s HR Benchmark Report, please click here.

Commenting on how the COVID-19 crisis has transformed hiring processes, Occupop.com co-founder Caroline Gleeson 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.”