ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis job market is a mixed bag right now.
While some companies have laid off staff or frozen hiring, others are still seeking employees or hiring more people than usual. To adapt, recruiting and staffing firms are embracing remote interviewing technologies and preparing to tackle a different hiring landscape when the COVID-19 crisis is over.
We spoke with local recruiting and staffing firms in three different industries about how the COVID-19 upheaval has forced them to adjust their processes and brace for further change.
Information technology
Technology Partners Inc., St. Louis’ largest IT staffing company, is still doing its typical level of business. President Greg Nichols said that while some clients have put jobs on hold, other companies have created new openings.
“We work with most of the major companies here in St. Louis, and most of them still have open jobs that we’re working on right now,” he said. “I don’t think the fear factor has set in.”
Before a shelter-in-place order went into effect Monday in St. Louis, Technology Partners already had been trying to use more video interviewing over the past year. Now, Nichols expects that technology to take off.
“We’ve had limited success in getting people to actually want to do the video interview (in the past),” he said. “It seems like now people would be a whole lot more receptive.”
Executive search
DHR International, a global executive search firm with a large presence in St. Louis, also has transitioned to using more video technology. When COVID-19 first affected the firm’s Asia offices, they replaced in-person interviews with videoconferencing and Skype. DHR’s U.S. offices are now following suit.
However, fewer interviews are taking place. St. Louis Managing Partner Steve Elias said that while health care and pharmaceutical searches are ramping up, many companies in other industries are postponing or pausing their executive searches.
For the firms that are still looking, he said, hiring timelines have accelerated, forcing DHR to become more nimble.
“Across the board, there’s a sense of urgency,” Elias said. “Critical hires are still going to happen. And in times like this, they need to happen more than ever, and sooner.”
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