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COVID-19 has had a significant impact within the jobs sector. Between shifts in recruitment trends and remote working, businesses have seen major changes during the pandemic.
From this year’s survey, we can see the different impacts the pandemic has had on Irish businesses, including fewer hires in 2020, but agri is bouncing back quickly.
John Miller, senior recruiter, agri food sector
Recruitment in the agri sector hasn’t seen significant changes in recent months explains John Miller, senior recruiter at Farm Relief Services (FRS): “The agri sector has remained relatively stable, with only a slight decrease in recruitment levels. There have been more jobs at junior and middle management in the last 10 months as these roles can be filled and integrated quicker in a business. FRS also saw a rise in technical and commercial recruitment levels during the first lockdown.”
Employers have regained their confidence and are now hiring at higher levels
Now into the second lockdown, John explains that recruiters have learned from the recent months and are adapting because of COVID-19: “We are finding recruitment levels to be stable, with minimal effect in demand during the second lockdown. This market confidence can be attributed to employers having already been through a much longer process and so are confident to move forward with their recruitment goals. Employers have regained their confidence and are now hiring at higher levels as senior level recruitment was largely on hold for the second and third quarter.”
FRS has identified an increase in demand for jobs in administration, sales, customer service, technical support and operation managers in 2020. Within the agri sector, the jobs that are being primarily advertised are in the animal health and animal nutrition areas as well as food production, machinery manufacturers and distributors.
Regarding the skillset that employers are currently seeking, John highlights the value of a background in agriculture or business studies: “Employers are looking for staff that can add value to their business, integrate quickly and take on extra responsibility when required. As always, third-level education in agricultural science or business studies is a prerequisite in most cases.”
FRS has noted that many companies have continued their graduate programmes during the pandemic. “Companies have continued to take on grads for graduate programmes and we have seen an increase in new graduate programmes being created among agribusinesses in both agri retail and agronomy,” says John.
He explains that employers have continued to recruit seasonal staff during the pandemic: “We have seen an increase in temporary recruitment across all our offices for support and emergency staffing. On the farm relief side of FRS, the annual recruitment drive is kicking off to meet springtime farm labour, calving, calf rearing and milking demands from farmers.”
The impact of Brexit remains uncertain from a recruitment point of view. “Brexit has created uncertainty in the farm machinery sector. Irish agri-business is largely an export market so addressing possible risk and identifying new opportunities will be key going forward,” concludes John.
Jack Kennedy, economist
Jack Kennedy, economist at recruitment website Indeed, says recruitment has been down in comparison with previous years: “It’s been an incredibly tough year for most sectors since COVID-19 hit, with job postings generally falling across the board. We’ve seen that consumer-facing sectors such as hospitality, tourism, food service, beauty and wellness have been some of the most affected. This is somewhat expected as these are areas that by nature involve more human contact, and therefore were more affected by lockdown measures.”
It’s not all doom and gloom, and we are seeing some positive movement on the jobs front
Jack reveals that both urban and rural areas have suffered regarding recruitment in recent months: “We’ve seen some regions more affected than others, particularly rural areas largely dependent on sectors such as tourism. Dublin has also seen a relatively large decline, mirroring trends we’ve seen in bigger cities across Europe where city centre footfall is down sharply as many people are working from home.”
While the pandemic has seen a significant shift in recruitment patterns in recent months, Jack explains that it is slowly picking up after a challenging year:
“It’s not all doom and gloom, and we are seeing some positive movement on the jobs front. Although job postings are down 24% as of 13 November, that figure is up from the low of -57% we saw in June. With recent positive news of a vaccine on the horizon, the recovery will hopefully continue as employers gain confidence in longer-term planning,” he adds.
Jack notes that recent trends and changes within the job sector are likely to remain for the foreseeable future for many workers: “In terms of future hiring trends, we are likely to see in Ireland, increased digitisation and remote work is likely here to stay. Many employers were moving towards this anyway, but the pandemic has certainly accelerated these plans.
“This could be a positive trend for rural Ireland as jobs become more decentralised. This could also be good news for younger people who have a love of farming but their career has driven them to the city. Remote working may allow them to keep farming, perhaps part-time, as well as pursue other opportunities.”
Indeed has also recognised a shift in trends within the Irish jobs market regarding seasonal staff: “We’re seeing an interesting trend with an increase in demand for warehouse workers (up 43% on last year), and delivery drivers (up 56% on last year) this year in the runup to Christmas. This change is likely due to the move to online retail.”
Tanya Egan, recruitment services manager
Tanya Egan, recruitment services manager at Teagasc, explains that the pandemic has not had a significant impact on recruitment, with the agency continuing to hire in recent months: “Teagasc maintained recruitment throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and hiring is broadly at the same levels as last year. It was important that Teagasc, as an essential service, could maintain service delivery to students and farmer clients and also continue to deliver on critical research projects.”
However, there has been a change in recruitment trends within Teagasc as the agency adapted to different circumstances: “Initially, recruitment was paused for a short time while we adapted to the new situation and developed creative ways of recruiting and inducting new hires. Video interviewing was developed along with remote and online methods for induction and training of new hires. This has allowed us to continue to recruit and maintain our important services.”
Like many other companies and agencies, remote working has become more popular among staff, with many working at home: “At the moment, we do have key essential staff who are on site in the workplace but most employees are working from home. We are currently putting together our recruitment needs for 2021, but this is not yet finalised. ”
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