Recently we reviewed important areas talent acquisition teams should focus on to prepare for ramping hiring back up after a crisis, no matter what the new normal will look like for the talent marketplace and economy. In this post, we share 3 recruiting strategies you can use right now to lay the foundation for hiring success post-COVID crisis.
Right-Now Strategies to Recruit in a Post-COVID-19 Economy
Assuming your hiring has either stopped or slowed down, you and your team have time while working from home under shelter in place orders to prepare a recruiting strategy in a post pandemic economy. Right now you can tackle things you’ve been putting off, as well as work to create content and talent pipelines so you’re prepared for success on the other side of a crisis.
Build Recruiting Funnels
While Congress passed a stimulus package increasing unemployment benefits earlier this year, this is not good news. However, it means that there are millions of job seekers on the market who will need jobs around the same time your company recovers and needs candidates.
Don’t hit pause on building your talent pipeline. While today might not be the day (or the week or the month) to aggressively recruit a recently laid off workforce, what you can do is set up campaigns that bring candidates like these into your talent network and use content marketing to provide them with resources and information.
Recruitment Content Marketing
There are two primary areas of focus for your content marketing: Now and later.
Now: The world has changed rapidly in a short period of time, and we don’t know what the new normal looks like. Neither do our candidates. Put yourself in their shoes, take a step back, and ask yourself what you would like to see in your email inbox if you were looking for a job right now.
If you jumped into video interviewing, your candidate newsletter should highlight that. It should highlight that you are still hiring, that your workforce is remote (or essential and outline your company’s safety precautions), and that you’re conducting face-to-face interviews via video. People are out of work right now, yes, but they also need to feel safe. Make sure the content being sent to candidates isn’t out of touch with current events. Consider offering resources on job searching, on how to productively work from home, and on what to do if their company has furloughed or laid off employees.
Related article: How to Conduct Video Interview at Scale. Video interviews are an excellent opportunity to take the candidate screening process online and have face-time with more candidates, more efficiently.
Later: Consider what kind of content you’ll want to share in one month, two months, three months down the line. Use the downtime now to create new content in the form of videos, resources, and articles. If you’ve developed new company policies to allow for remote working, create videos about how you’re successfully doing so. If you have made significant changes to a work site, hiring process, or company structure, you’re going to need updated content.
Don’t Hesitate to Educate
COVID-19 has already impacted the conference and trade show industry. As recruiters, we rely on conferences to stay up-to-date on trends and technology, as well as for networking and learning opportunities. As more conferences get canceled, many companies are embracing virtual conferences. So those conferences you weren’t able to sign up for because the travel or time didn’t work? You can attend them from your home office.
Take a look at this list of conferences for 2020 and embrace the digital learning experience. Because of the impact on our industry, you’ll find learning sessions about hiring in a post-crisis economy or how to handle the end of a furlough. It can also give you a glimpse into what you and your company can do with hosting virtual events in the future, like online hiring events.
Finally, if you and your team have been putting off using automation, or video platforms, or hosting online hiring events, this is the time to make learning how to do these things a priority. For those on your team who are HRCI or SHRM certified, you can also use this time to earn recertification credits by signing up for online learning sessions or virtual conferences. While our human tendency during a crisis is to freeze, you can be the leadership your company needs right now to keep things moving along until you settle back into a new and improved normal.
