The pandemic has taken a toll on nearly everyone ever since the implementation of the first Movement Control Order (MCO) in March 2020. However, contrary to the general public’s belief, companies are actually still hiring new intakes, especially in essential services.
A survey conducted by Aisling Group, a talent solution company along with Leaderonomics was assembled in a White Paper titled, “Companies That Thrived During the Pandemic Reveal Most In-Demand Talent and Skills During Unprecedented Times”.
Melissa Norman, founder of Aisling Group stated, “The survey set out to gain insights into the hiring and the upskilling and reskilling practices of these businesses that thrived during the pandemic,” during the presentation of the White Paper.
The respondents mainly come from industries that were deemed as essential services; Banking and financial services, manufacturing, outsourcing, and software development.
Do companies still hire employees during these hard times?
Actually, they do!
It was found that 50 per cent of respondents have employed 25 or more new hires in 2020. The numbers raised by 1.67 per cent, becoming 51.67 per cent of respondents planning to recruit 25 or more new hires in their company.
However, the numbers also seem to increase for companies that do not intend to take any new hires from 2020 (3.33 per cent) to 2021 (8.33%).
So, what are the skills most wanted by companies?
According to a qualitative analysis conducted by Aisling Group, these are the five top themes that were considered business-critical:
- Information Technology (IT)
- Engineering
- Human Resources (HR)
- Soft Skills
- Customer Service
After further breaking down the skills, Information Technology (IT) and Human Resource (HR) was deemed as the most crucial skill sought by these essential services during the pandemic.
“At a time where working from home and different policies have to kick in to accommodate the changing work styles and work expectations, “Boundary Management” came out as a point, which is being able to set certain types of boundaries in terms of how people work and in different working conditions.”
Do companies place importance on upskilling and reskilling their current employees?
Having to adapt and accommodate to the pandemic situation, 86.89 per cent of the respondents said ‘Yes’ to the importance of upskilling and reskilling their current employees.
In contrast to what most of the general public deemed, the results came out as so due to the respondents being more technical in nature, which do require upskilling and reskilling.
However, sooner or later the industries that do not require any technical aspects need to upskill in order to adapt as the world is evolving in this current situation.
Meet Aisling Group, a home-grown Malaysian talent solution company.
“Leading the charge to humanize talent acquisition”
Aisling Group, or also known as Aisling Corporation Sdn Bhd was first founded in 2016 by Melissa Norman, an HR recruitment veteran in Malaysia, together with Miles Hunt, of Benula Capital.
Providing a highly specialised approach and value-effective solutions that require less time and resource to plan, execute and deliver, Aisling Group progressively helps in shaping their clients and candidate community on their talent management approach and initiatives in the areas of:
- Talent identification
- Talent development
- Talent engagement
- Succession planning
To know more about Aisling Group, you can check out their website here.
Let us know what you think of the results from this survey in the comments down below.
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