Hiring New Employees during COVID-19

Editor's Note: Take a look at our featured best practice, Recruitment Strategy Toolkit (606-slide PowerPoint presentation). Curated by McKinsey-trained Executives Boost Your Hiring Success with the Ultimate Recruitment Strategy Business Toolkit Are you ready to revolutionize your recruitment process? In today's fast-paced business environment, finding the right talent isn't just a task--it's a critical [read more]

Also, if you are interested in becoming an expert on Human Resource Management (HRM), take a look at Flevy's Human Resource Management (HRM) Frameworks offering here. This is a curated collection of best practice frameworks based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. By learning and applying these concepts, you can you stay ahead of the curve. Full details here.

* * * *

Editor’s Note: Grant Stanley is a seasoned Business Coach and a Sales & Marketing Expert with a 20+ year outstanding Sales and Marketing record. He is also an author on Flevy, where he has published materials from Business Fundamentals to Management and Leadership Excellence.  Take a look at all of Grant’s Flevy best practice documents here.

* * * *

If your business is hiring, the process may look a little different now, with in-person interviews or conversations needing to shift to video calls. You will also need to adapt your recruiting practices to keep your candidate pipeline full. I hope this guide will provide you with five methods you can implement now to help your business effectively recruit, hire and on-board new employees as a remote team, which will help your company continue to recruit the top talent that can fulfill your staffing needs.

A new study by Doodle revealed that only 16% of HR professionals in the USA said they were prepared to go fully virtual with their recruitment and on-boarding programs. The study also found that remote meeting tools tend to be low-priority items in HR budgets despite the surge in remote meetings, that new employees who were on-boarded virtually had a hard time feeling like part of the team, and that HR managers struggled with employee engagement and effectively integrating them into the corporate culture.

The future of business and the hiring process as it relates to the COVID-19 pandemic is uncertain, so small businesses will need to be flexible and adjust their usual practices until face-to-face business is again possible. Here are five steps you can take now to adapt your hiring practices.

1. Let people know you are recruiting.

Many qualified candidates who were looking for jobs before the pandemic may assume that most companies are not hiring during the crisis, so you must make it well known that your company is actively seeking new employees.

Companies need to first let the public know that they are still open, still hiring and moving forward. The available candidate pool will gravitate towards those firms active in outreach.

Make sure all of your current job postings are listed on your company’s website, and call attention to your open positions on social media and your other marketing avenues to help find the right candidate.

Companies should refresh and cleanse their job postings online – new postings will get the most traction, and ones posted even a month ago will be viewed as potentially not relevant anymore.

You can also draw upon your current employees to help get the word out by leveraging their own social media. Encourage your company staff to share the job posting on their social media. The more shares, the bigger the reach. Offer incentives for any company employee that can share why they love working for that company within the job opening post!

2. Have a detailed employee recruitment procedure.

If you are hiring during corona virus, you need a detailed and well-thought-out procedure or recruitment plan in place before you begin the process. Hiring completely remotely will be a vastly different experience from hiring in person, and it is your responsibility to the company and to potential employees to make sure you have a process that will work.

Make certain you have a system in place to test out your technologies ahead of time and ask the interviewer to do the same. Anything you can do ahead of time to make sure everything goes smoothly is a good start.

Much of the preparation for hiring a new employee will be the same as if you were hiring in person. You will compile a list of candidates, narrow them down and choose which ones you will interview.

When you extend the invitation for a video interview, make sure you detail exactly how the process will go and what the candidate should expect.

• Include all necessary information, such as time, date and who will call whom.
• Provide a link to the video meeting.
• Tell them whether this position is permanently or temporarily remote.

Remote recruitment must involve giving plenty of information to prospective candidates and ensuring you are vetting the applications that come in. There is bound to be a plethora of applications. Set strict standards for what you want in an applicant, make those clear on the job posting, and cut anyone who does not meet them. It is crucial to being able to go through this process remotely.

3. Be realistic in your offer.

It is a very uncertain time for businesses and employees alike, so when you are recruiting, be sure that your company can support a new employee with no reservations or modifications.

When you are hiring during a crisis, I think you need to be very conscious of what you can offer. Make sure it is going to be a long, permanent position – to the best of your knowledge – complete with competitive pay and benefits.

If you think or know that circumstances will change after the crisis has passed, such as the employee shifting to in-office work, explain all of that out when you give the job offer.

Whether it is a permanent position or temporary, ensure that the new recruit and the company are on the same page. Things are different now and will be different after the crisis. Company leaders must have clear plans.

4. Prioritise remote working skills.

Because many people are working remotely indefinitely, it is in your company’s best interest to place a special focus on skills for remote work when you are hiring. Effective communication, organisation, conscientiousness and self-direction are all useful skills in remote work.

While your company may not be fully remote forever, specifically seeking these skills in job candidates can make their transition into your company easier and increase their initial productivity, since there may be less of a learning curve to adjust to remote work.

You may also consider making certain roles that you are recruiting for completely remote.

Remote recruitment allows organisations to access more candidates than ever in the comfort of their own homes. Many companies that are hiring during corona virus are hiring specifically remote or freelance positions.

5. Utilise your existing candidate pool.

Many companies have pools of candidates who have previously submitted applications and may be seeking a job during the crisis. If you would like to avoid an active recruitment campaign, you can shift your focus to this existing pool of candidates and hire from there.

We are focusing more on passive candidates – i.e., existing candidates, potential candidates we’ve been keeping an eye on, unsolicited applications. Optimising an existing talent pool affords companies something to tap into as they are executing their crisis exit strategy.

This approach can give companies the space and time to recruit the right employees who will go full force on new initiatives once the crisis has passed and businesses have resumed their normal activities.

Want to Achieve Excellence in Human Resource Management (HRM)?

Gain the knowledge and develop the expertise to become an expert in Human Resource Management (HRM). Our frameworks are based on the thought leadership of leading consulting firms, academics, and recognized subject matter experts. Click here for full details.

The purpose of Human Resources (HR) is to ensure our organization achieves success through our people. Without the right people in place—at all levels of the organization—we will never be able to execute our Strategy effectively.

This begs the question: Does your organization view HR as a support function or a strategic one? Research shows leading organizations leverage HR as a strategic function, one that both supports and drives the organization's Strategy. In fact, having strong HRM capabilities is a source of Competitive Advantage.

This has never been more true than right now in the Digital Age, as organizations must compete for specialized talent to drive forward their Digital Transformation Strategies. Beyond just hiring and selection, HR also plays the critical role in retaining talent—by keeping people engaged, motivated, and happy.

Learn about our Human Resource Management (HRM) Best Practice Frameworks here.