COVID-19 has altered the way we work, with organizations moving to a digital workspace rather than a physical office. How will a digital workplace affect your hiring and background screening procedures? Learn how to adapt in our most recent blog post.

The term “digital workplace” has recently been in the news, particularly in today’s COVID-19 environment, where many employees work from home. What does this mean for your company and how you will conduct business in the future? And, as your company grows, how will a digital work environment affect your hiring and background screening processes?

Understanding Today’s Workplace

During the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, organizations across the globe have been forced to shut down their brick-and-mortar offices, remote work is quickly becoming the new norm, and it looks as if digital, rather than physical, workspaces will dominate in the near future. In a recent study, Global Workplace Analytics [1] found that 25-30% of the workforce will be working-from-home multiple days a week by the end of 2021.

That might be a daunting idea, but consider this: according to Forbes [2], 77% of the workforce wants to continue working from home at least once a week even after the pandemic is over, and new studies have shown that 77% of remote workers say they are more productive when working from home [3].

What Else Can You Do? 

When you think of a digital workplace, you might envision employees working from their living rooms, using video conferences, and laptop computers. And you are correct! But the digital workplace is more than that, and it begins before your new hires even join your team. You can now recruit, hire, and onboard employees remotely.

Here are four suggestions for optimizing your organization for today’s work environment:

1. Extend Hiring Parameters – The shift to working remotely that accompanied COVID-19 clearly accelerated acceptance for remote work. It has proven that organizations can continue to be successful, even when no longer united by the same physical location, and that it is possible to find the right talent for your team with fewer location-based restrictions. Because of this, doors open for flexible recruitment in dense locations lacking a regional office, where previously it might have been more difficult to attract candidates without a workspace. Given these changes, you may find there are many more applicants available to your organization. 

2. Screen More Efficiently – As you make your talent choices, you want to make sure that you have the right technologies at your disposal to speed candidates through the background screening process – even if you’re not able to meet candidates in person. Consider a self-service applicant center to help make checks exponentially faster and easier for both the candidate and your HR team. Additionally, incorporating a Social Media Search in your screening process can be a valuable supplement to virtually screening candidates – providing vital information to help make sound hiring decisions by potentially identifying problematic job-relevant behaviors.

3. Focus on Employee Safety – Even with increased acceptance for working remotely, your organization may be faced with a hybrid working environment, with some team members working on site. Or you may have a large workforce population already back at work. 

4. Plan For The Future – Most workspaces are still closed, but acting now to plan for the future will ensure that you have the agility to meet your workforce’s changing needs. 

At the end of the day, succeeding in today’s digital workplace requires harnessing available technology to empower your people. Acting now to adapt to today’s digital work environment will not only lead to short-term success but will also position your organization to better weather future changes to your workplace culture.