Recruiting During the Pandemic: How Hiring Has Changed

The past several months have been an unprecedented shock to the lives of, well, everyone. Not only has the design, wants, and needs of our personal lives been radically reimagined, what people want in their professional lives has changed in new, powerful ways. This shift extends to what people are expecting from their employers.

While far-ranging layoffs, temporary furloughs, and rescinded job offers characterized the initial pandemic months, now organizations are emerging and slowly looking to hire new talent. But they face a litany of new challenges and demands among jobseekers and dramatically altered landscape.  

In order to compete effectively for top talent in the new market, organizations must do their due diligence to understand the current needs and expectations of candidates and ensure it's abundantly clear that they are responding in a way that meets them. This is doubly important now as companies are emerging from the initial shut down leaner than they were before, making the demand and competition for leading candidates even higher.

As Jack Whatley, a renowned recruiting strategist explains in an interview with Forbes, "safety and job stability are at the top of mind for the jobseeker now � and that changes what they want in a job. Businesses will have to become employee-centric as well as customer-centric."

While compensation and benefits will never get knocked off the priority list for jobseekers, today, people need to know that their personal and financial safety is protected and guaranteed from potential employers. How employers treat and value their employees will be sussed out with greater levels of scrutiny than ever before, and the organizations that are able to promote their employee-centric values and practices will have a considerable recruiting advantage over those that aren't.

Whatley goes onto predict that “top performers will be in twice the demand than before” in the ensuing months as organizations look to maximize their efficiencies and reduce redundancies to save costs. As a result, the candidate experience that prospective employees encounter will also be highly indicative as to which employer they eventually pledge their services. In the new normal, recruiting processes must be streamlined and highly responsive to keep leading candidates engaged, as they will most likely be involved in multiple hiring processes simultaneously.

As we appear to be approaching another period of uncertainty with the number of cases steadily increasing, now is the perfect opportunity to look inward at your hiring processes, employer brand, and candidate experience and ensure you're situated to win the talent you need as your positions begin to open.

Bear Staffing

Struggling to find the talent your business needs to navigate through uncertain times? Bear Staffing is here to help.

Our team of industry experts has substantial experience connecting organizations with top-tier talent across multiple industries. Call us today to learn more.