COVID-19 Pandemic & Recruitment Woes! So How to Keep Hiring while Social Distancing?

Employers all over the world have more urgent matters in hand than recruiting, which is obviously keeping their businesses alive and running! The COVID-19 pandemic has halted the recruitment process, with an online article verifying the dilemma, saying that “42% of surveyed organizations have frozen or reduced hiring”.  While employees are trying to not aggravate the stability with their current jobs by being their productive-best and doing ‘work-from-homes’, the current COVID-19 pandemic has proven to be worse than any recession experienced in the world before for businesses and employees alike!

Now that employees and employers are trying to ensure a fast footing and work towards a more sure future, where does that leave the recruiters?

Recruiters and headhunters are stuck between grabbing the top talent for companies who would like to close their recruitment process quickly and freezing the ongoing interviews of not so top-tier job profiles. Quite a catch-22 situation, with top talent not so willing to start a new job with a different company just yet, and unemployed personnel facing issues because the hiring process is halted. 

Well, recruiters can still try the following to somewhat bring their hiring processes back on track and recruit talent while social distancing.

1. Help on Resumes & Recruitment Platform Profiles

Recruiters and headhunters on LinkedIn are now offering their advice and expertise to job hunters so that they can improve their profile pictures, summary, and headline. Even though there might be a scarcity in recruitment, job seekers can update their profiles and ensure that they don’t miss out on a good job opportunity the next time because of outdated profiles. Recruiters on other recruiting platforms could also follow suit.

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2. Get the ‘Need of the Hour’ Employees

The ‘Need of the Hour’ employees are hot deals at the moment. While curbing the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous hospital staff, doctors, nurses, and all healthcare workers, engineers, education providers, daycare helpers, etc. are recruited quickly to provide for the increasing demand. Thus, looking for professionals on every platform would be ideal instead of sticking to only one or two. Ever thought of alumni communities for recruitment? Alumni Alliances, a professional alumni network, has many healthcare professionals on its platform. Maybe it’s time to try a new platform for your recruitment needs!

3. Digital Interview Processes 

Naturally, the interview processes have been restricted to only digital. While we live in the digital world, don’t assume that each and every one of us is well versed with technology. You can enlighten your candidates on how you can overcome the recruitment process while social distancing, by using one-on-one calls, video interviews, and possibly how to move from one job to another while still working from home, since we are still unsure about when we all could roam the streets as safe as before.

4. ‘Greener’ Networks

While everyone is clamoring to get on board the top-rated job search engines like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Indeed, Monster, etc. maybe you should widen your network and get in touch with other platforms and may be exclusive ones that you might have access to and others don’t. This could be true in regards to an alumni community because your competitors might not have gone to the same university as you, hence you have a higher chance of finding the best talent from your university than them.

5. Displaced Employees and Students

The work-from-home situation was an adjustment for employees who are juggling work as well as doing childcare and continuing education for their children. It is a huge adjustment but an adjustment nonetheless with salaries still trickling into their bank accounts. Employees who took the major hit during these times are the ones who had to be physically present at workplaces. This is denoted highly through the number of applications filed for unemployment benefits in the USA. The tension has also risen for national and international students who worked part-time to cover their expenses. 

You can provide quick ease to displaced employees and students by helping spread their need for work through your contacts. This is also the time to check for skills that could lead displaced personnel to different career paths. For example, recruiters can check with candidates if they are compatible and would be willing to contribute to the ‘need-of-the-hour’ industries. 

You can up your recruitment game by continuously publishing posts on social networking sites, professional networking sites and alumni communities. We hope you liked this blog. Please do let us know your thoughts through the comments section below and subscribe to Alumni Insider for more articles like this.

References:
1. How Recruiters are Stepping Up in Tough Times – and What You Can Do Too