How The Pandemic Changed Tech & Digital Hiring Practices
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Our team at Jelly Academy recently ran a study, sponsored by Innovate B.C., to determine what changes have occurred in hiring practices and Diversity and Inclusion policies for tech and digital marketing companies in the past two years. Since the start of the pandemic, as course providers, we saw a large demand for skills training, hiring professionals looking to advance their teams, and the need to make the course accessible which led to administering it digitally. Alongside this, we’ve watched important movements be amplified these past two years such as Black Lives Matter, Every Child Matters, and the MMIWG report which have all been catalysts for demanding more Diversity and Inclusion action from today’s companies.
Based on these events, we ran a survey and interviewed 1,532 hiring professionals primarily in the tech and digital marketing industries to determine what changes exactly have occurred for hiring and Diversity and Inclusion practices, and how much. The results from the survey were very telling and provided valuable insight on how tech and digital companies can continue evolving in the coming years.
56.64% of respondents found the last two years have made hiring for digital marketing and tech roles including SEO, social media, digital ads, PR, content creation, website development, and software development, become mildly to very difficult. However, almost the same number of the respondents, 50.25%, said digital hiring tools, such as LinkedIn and Indeed, have made hiring much easier. So, while there are challenges, there have been an influx in alternative approaches to address hiring needs.
During the pandemic, many businesses, if possible, were required to transition to more flexible, remote offerings and based on survey results, it seems that tech and digital companies have adopted these schedules full time. When asked, only 0.66% of respondents have maintained full time in-office hours, whereas the other 99.34% of respondents have either incorporated hybrid models, remote work, flex time, or compressed work weeks.
From offering the types of flexible work schedules listed above, 37.31% of participants said it has increased the number of applicants they receive for tech and digital marketing roles. These results are a great indication of how adaptation can bring on positive results.
The study yielded some very telling data surrounding tech and digital marketing industry efforts for Diversity & Inclusion. 86.6% of respondents indicated that they had not increased or changed their Diversity and Inclusion practices in the past two years and the majority of respondents noted 5-25% of their workforce was a visible minority. Based on the public conversations surrounding Diversity and Inclusion and the resounding consensus that there is more need for these efforts, the results were disappointing. 70.23% felt their peers in tech and digital marketing had increased Diversity and Inclusion efforts, showing how there may be many unfilled public promises and more internal action is required.
After gathering these results, it was clear that while there have been changes and steps towards innovation in tech and digital, there are still departments where these industries have a long way to go. The data points to how there is much progression when it comes to hiring, and adapting one’s business model, and the same effort should be applied to efforts surrounding Diversity and Inclusion.
To read the full study, check it out here.