COVID-19 has disrupted life on such a scale that unemployment numbers have increased in the millions. There was a time that recruiters and sourcers were focused on making employers as attractive as possible to attract the best talent that they could in a market.
We find ourselves discovering an entirely different landscape than we did six+ months ago, one where resumes and applications flooding our career sites, where most couldn’t keep up with the amount. Now, not all industries and companies are undergoing furloughs and layoffs. Some, be it healthcare, e-commerce, logistics, etc.
Facing this trying time has created such a difference and forcing us to create a hiring process that will require different approaches. On the one hand, there may never be a better time to expand teams, because, let’s face it, there is no shortage of talent prospects for any level and high qualified who are looking to find their next chapter in their careers. On the one hand, there may never be a better time to expand your teams as there is no shortage of talent for any position and a lot of high-quality talent looking to find their next chapter. So, what does that look like?
Let’s start with the most important part of our jobs; finding qualified talent.
This challenge is significant, because of the cost of a bad hire. This doesn’t mean HR teams take on all of the burdens, but rather rethink the internal talent landscape persona. Through streamlined career sites, one-button applications, text, and video recruiting, bringing recruitment efforts in house doesn’t necessarily mean a back-breaking burden on talent acquisition, it just means a commitment to streamlining.
Onboard new hires, getting them set up for success, there are leading industries still looking to hire right now, shipping, deliveries, online learning, and of course; remote meeting tools. For these companies and those attempting to compete with them, getting new hires through an onboarding process in a timely manner so they can address the growing need for services is so important and necessary.
Our healthcare professionals specifically face the most challenges. We can all agree, this industry already had staffing shortages then comes COVID-19. We know that it’s not simply getting new staff onboarding and able to help right away for all patients. As this pandemic been growing, the healthcare industry has had to fast-track their hiring process, adopting to advance remote screening tools and get mighty creative in recruiting talent from other industries such as military nurse vets for hospital work and rehiring former hospitality workers to help out in senior care facilities.
Keeping candidates engaged even in a hiring freeze can be hard, especially for the industries that aren’t able to make planned additions to the staff due to a hiring freeze. It’s pretty cool to see how companies are taking creativity approach to keep prospects engaged. For some of us who had already gone through much of the process before things shut down, keeping a candidate you’ve identified for hiring interested in the position can be frustrating, especially if their situation becomes more desperate and being not only recruiters or sourcers, we are also humans who want to always help someone who is looking. This has been so hard to see people lose their jobs based on this pandemic.
In some cases, this may be a no-win situation, which at times sucks and we have to accept the outcome. What can be a solution may be to offer them access to online professional development training or organize a networking event that will help them get by until hiring opens back up and provide some resources to receive notifications.
During this time and if the candidates can hang on, recruiting departments need to stay in contact on a regular basis to communicate future steps and what’s happening around the company’s future. I would encourage you to chat with your prospects so if they are considering taking a new position, you can see if you can get provide any advice or convince them your organization offers a better path forward, and if you can, then perhaps they can offer a referral candidate.
The fact is, there is no easy recruiting process with this forever changing environment we are living in. However, when we do get back up to normalcy, the recruiting process will need to be properly evaluated, adjusted, and supported, our recruiting teams will need to be working on what could be automated and add more layers of strategies that will make the hiring process as efficient as possible.