Business Continuity professionals will continue to be in high demand even in a post-pandemic world. As organizations continue to evaluate their business continuity and resiliency programs, they are quickly identifying the need to maintain the subject matter experts on their staff to help navigate their resiliency strategies and response. The COVID-19 pandemic has emphasized the importance of planning at the strategic level and the skills within business continuity, resiliency, and crisis management are at the forefront of the executives’ minds.
So, what are we are seeing today? Now that organizations have had a chance to review their current business continuity plans post the initial stages when COVID-19 hit, they are now focusing on filling the gaps within their business continuity programs and teams to ensure they have the right people with the right skills along with the right technology. As the end of the year quickly approaches, organizations are also faced with the urgency to fill the necessary gaps to help them achieve year-end goals. Our recent job market trend assessment shows a spike in business continuity, resiliency, crisis management related openings. Prior to COVID-19 we tracked on average approximately 20 new full-time permanent job openings per week within the USA and on average 30 new job postings internationally, which was a record high at any given time. Since the third week of March, there has been a noticeable surge in new weekly job advertisements (an average of 33 within the USA and 46 internationally) and we have noticed more contract jobs. Some weeks we tracked over 50 new weekly job postings internationally and the third week in June and September hit 75! Once again, this confirms that organizations desire to have a robust business continuity program to put new internal guidelines in place based on lessons learned, as well as solid contingency plans to build resilience and to be better positioned to respond to future crises. As mentioned earlier, we’ve also noticed a spike in contract openings. Organizations are leveraging Independent Contractors to help them quickly complete projects that were interrupted or placed on hold by COVID-19. We expect this trend to continue through year-end given the reallocation of budgets due to program needs.
Additionally, we analyze and track the level of the job opportunity posted as senior management, mid-management, or planner. It's important to note that we only track positions with a significant focus on either business continuity, resiliency, disaster recovery, or crisis management – primarily in the private sector. What we found was interesting... New senior leadership job postings increased by 57% after COVID-19 hit. Mid management job postings increased by 46% while planner level positions increased by 32%. This indicates that companies are seeking business continuity professionals to champion their program more than ever before! With the increased openings we are also noticing that many of the job posting are going unfilled for longer periods of time. Hiring managers should be aware that allowing a job to go unfilled for too long can put them at risk of losing the headcount, especially as the end of year approaches. Additionally, if you leave a position open for too long and other top candidates in the market are aware of it, they might form a negative opinion about the organization. We recommend creating a strategic hiring approach to ensure you are ready to recruit the best talent for your openings.
For organizations that intend to hire within the business continuity industry before the end of the year, we recommend ensuring that you begin your recruiting efforts quickly. The quicker you begin your recruitment process, the better chances you will have to identify a successful candidate. Beware that the competition exists with the increased ability to work remotely, and thus candidates have more choices than before. Additionally, online interview technology is allowing organizations to expedite their selection process without the need to coordinate onsite interviews and in turn, they are reaching hiring decisions within days and sometimes hours of the video interview. Lastly, be sure you are considering individuals who are not a 100% match. COVID-19 has emphasized the need to consider a skill-based hiring methodology to identify individuals who have the subject matter expertise coupled with the proven competencies to be successful in the job. These professionals can prove to be valuable long beyond the current crisis.
There are always options to consider when obtaining the right level of resiliency staffing for your program. Please feel free to reach out to us with any staffing questions. We are here to help you assess the appropriate personnel need, be it managed services, consulting, temporary or a permanent hire. Additionally, we have sample job descriptions and our 18th Edition BCM Compensation Report available for review. You can also find great hiring manager video content posted on the BC Management You Tube channel. Arrange a complimentary discussion today at info@bcmanagement.com.