COVID, redundancies and changing work environments are among the many reasons we are now seeing many potentially excellent candidates with holes in their resumés.
When recruiting, don’t assume this is all negative. Instead, you may be pleasantly surprised when you drill down in your interviews and find positive attributes, skills and life experiences that people may have learnt from these challenging experiences.
Some of these include:
· How people react in the face of adversity is a testament to how they handle the tough times.
· How they can pivot accordingly and roll with the punches.
· It shows perseverance and strength of character.
· It humbles people and once they have secured a new role they are often more appreciative of the journey they’ve been on.
· Demonstrates a personal element and they become more well-rounded individuals.
· People have returned to work with better boundaries of what they’ll find acceptable in a job and things they won’t. This means there is stronger transparency between the employee and the employer from the start of their employment which improves the chances of a longer tenure.
· Both parties have a better understanding of mental health and the personal toll it may have taken, which reflects the greater awareness of the issue generally and the support services available.
In a survey of 23,000 global workers last year, 62% said they’d taken a break at some point in their professional career. This openness around resumé gaps has coincided with a surge in redundancies, the shedding of the layoff taboo and workers writing epic farewell messages on social media highlighting their experience of being laid off.
Much has changed in the nearly three years since COVID arrived and recruiters, candidates and employers alike need to change too.