Employment firms see mixed reactions from clients in terms of hiring in the midst of a pandemic, with the impact varying based on the industry.IT and health care positions are still in high demand, but hospitality and travel companies obviously aren’t looking to hire any time soon, according to Diane Krehbiel-Delson, chief executive of DKKD Staffing in Westlake Village.DKKD, No. 19 on the Business Journal’s list of staffing and employment firms, specializes in technology hires, health care, finance, manufacturing, entertainment, and hospitality.“The next few months will be really interesting,” said Krehbiel-Delson. “I usually get a lot of inquiries at the end of the year to do inventory, bring in temps, documentation and things like that, get wrapped up for the new year. I haven’t seen those inquiries yet. It’s still more replacement of people they laid off, or they’ve created new positions because they’ve done a reorganization due to the pandemic.”Job candidates are wary too, Krehbiel-Delson said, with potential employers announcing layoffs, potential bankruptcies and a general economic downturn.“They’re not willing to take that chance,” she explained. “In another market, they may be more willing to, but not when there’s so much uncertainty.”Meanwhile Aerotek Inc., No. 12 on the Business Journal’s list, is seeing a steady comeback in business compared to the second quarter slump from April to June. Based in Baltimore, Aerotek has offices in Woodland Hills and Oxnard.“Surprisingly enough, we are seeing that the public, the workforce, the labor force, are interested in working. They are looking to get back into the workforce even though there’s still COVID out there,” said Juan Mendoza, director of business operations at the company’s Woodland Hills office.For people with the right skills, there’s still a “war for talent,” as Mendoza put it, particularly in specialized fields.“In our aviation division we hire A&P (airframe and powerplant) mechanics to work on aircraft and we have demand for that, but those folks are few and far between so we have to do a lot of work to find them and then attract them to our customers,” said Mendoza. “We still have demand in aviation and defense. Our commercial aerospace business has dropped, that’s just a result of commercial aerospace in general being down.”Virtual vettingAfter the COVID pandemic settles down, Nick Sefayan, director at Global Service Resources in Burbank, expects businesses to follow a virtual path, from the interview all the way to a work-from-home set up.Global Service is No. 1 on the Business Journal’s list. The staffing firm serves the health care, medical, IT, government and entertainment industries, plus administrative and support positions.“Everybody is used to working from home; they don’t want to go back to the office most likely until there’s some sort of vaccine, but even if the vaccine comes out, it’s still going to be the norm,” said Sefayan. “A lot of offices out there are getting closed down. … I think commercial offices are going to close down and they’re going to convert it to housing.”The virtual interview process has allowed Sefayan’s company to expand its geography and hire a couple more recruiters for certain fields, such as health care and technical.“We do a lot of business in different states as well. We’re trying to think out-of-the-box and trying to go to other states or other areas of the country that we think we’d get more business,” explained Senayan, adding that remote work has made expansion easier.Krehbiel-Delson, however, has some clients that still want people to be local and come in to work once COVID restrictions are lifted.
“They’re hopeful that there will be the opportunity for everyone to go in … It’s not deemed as 100 percent remote so far,” Krehbiel-Delson told the Business Journal. DKKD has always focused on Southern California, she said, even though the team has staffed people all over the United States.
The pandemic has all but solidified virtual interviews as a staple in the staffing industry now, with many firms having it in place pre-pandemic.“IT has become such a fast-paced interviewing industry,” said Krehbiel-Delson. “You have to get them to the clients fast, get them to interview fast, and having to interview everyone in person makes it virtually impossible so I’ve kind of adapted to the virtual aspect anyways.”“Prior to (the pandemic), we would do virtual interviews when needed, if someone was out of town or if they were across town and couldn’t find time to make it to the office or to the customer,” Mendoza added. “Now, it’s the norm. It gives everyone so much flexibility in terms of travel, commuting to candidates, and our clients are OK with it.”
Staffing’s Virtual Future From Interview to Job
