The pandemic hit businesses hard—the rapid growth of the remote workforce, the temporary suspension of hiring, and the introduction of new safety protocols served as a shock to many organizations.
But alongside these challenges, the coronavirus pandemic also presents organizations with an opportunity to update their talent acquisition processes and create more efficient ways to hire top-tier talent.
This article will give you three post-COVID tips to help you navigate employment and hiring challenges as the economy continues to recover.
Common Recruitment Challenges Post-COVID-19
Leaders and managers had to rise to the challenges of the pandemic by rapidly shifting their recruitment strategies and processes. As a result, many organizations faced challenges such as:
1. Making the shift to remote recruiting
Traditional recruitment often had a remote element—initial outreach and new-hire prospecting could be done through social media (e.g., LinkedIn), online job boards like Indeed and Dice, video conferencing, and phones, for example.
But when the pandemic hit, many organizations were unprepared to shift to remote recruiting, including onboarding new employees without ever meeting them in person.
2. Keeping up with changing regulations
As states imposed new safety protocols and restrictions on businesses, employers had to learn how to adjust procedures for in-person interviews, onboarding new hires, and complying with the various wage and labor regulations enacted during the pandemic.
3. Maintaining an engaged workforce
The rapid shift to remote work also presented organizations with a challenge: how to keep employees engaged when their entire team is scattered across multiple locations.
Leaders had to find ways to keep their teams connected despite the physical distance, and businesses had to come up with creative solutions to maintain a productive and engaged workforce.
4. Finding the right mix of technical skills and soft skills
Soft skills are non-technical abilities that enable a person to interact effectively with others and work in a team. They consist of qualities such as strong communication, collaboration, self-discipline, problem-solving, decision-making, time management, and empathy.
Soft skills are intangible and cannot be taught like hard skills (technical skills). They must be developed over time.
In addition to the challenge of finding qualified candidates with the appropriate technical skills, employers now face the problem of locating and selecting applicants who possess a mix of hard and soft skills essential for success in today’s ever-changing business climate.
3 Tips for Navigating Talent Acquisition Post-COVID-19
Let's take a look at three essential tips for successfully navigating the post-COVID landscape:
1. Digitize your recruitment strategy from start to finish.
The most successful recruitment strategies will leverage existing technologies and digital platforms to streamline recruitment processes. Employers can use online job boards, social media, video conferencing software, automated applicant tracking systems (ATS), and other tools to move the recruiting process along quickly and efficiently.
Social media in particular is an incredible asset to recruiters and HR personnel when used strategically. 79% of job applicants use social media in their job search, and social media can be a great place to find and connect with potential candidates.
To better leverage social media, companies looking for top talent can:
- Focus on their employer brand by creating a cohesive and consistent narrative across their various social media platforms.
- Engage with target audiences by actively participating in industry conversations, sharing relevant content, and responding to comments.
- Develop a referral program or tap into employee networks to find the best applicants.
They can also remain active on popular job boards and in professional communities to ensure that the right people see their job postings.
2. Focus on soft skills with the right technical skill set.
With remote work becoming a standard operating procedure, employers need to hire candidates with the right technical and soft skills. Soft skills are more difficult to teach than technical skills; they involve how a person interacts with colleagues and customers, their attitude toward work, and their ability to stay productive in an ever-changing environment.
When assessing applicants for remote roles, recruiters should look for qualities such as excellent communication, problem-solving ability, self-discipline, and collaboration. They should also be aware of any potential skills gaps in their organization, so they can identify candidates who have the right mix of hard and soft skills to fill those gaps.
3. Automate COVID vaccine verification for employees.
For employers who require their employees to be vaccinated prior to returning to the workplace, it is important to have an effective system for verifying employee vaccinations. An automated solution can help employers quickly and easily verify that their employees are up-to-date on their vaccines.
Employer vaccine verification is a requirement that ensures that employees are properly vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus before allowing them to enter the workplace. Employers can use automated solutions to verify employee vaccinations quickly and easily, eliminating manual paperwork and reducing errors.
Endnote
Navigating talent acquisition post-COVID is no small feat, but with the right strategies and tools in place, employers can find the best candidates and create a safe and productive workplace. By digitizing recruitment processes, focusing on soft skills, and automating vaccine verification for employees, organizations can ensure they have an effective strategy for finding top talent.