The phrase “You’ve got mail” were three and a half words that triggered a revolution. What started out as messages from Grandma and Grandpa and chain letters from friends has evolved, and now every company, charity, philanthropy, and social media is vying for the attention of inbox eyeballs on a daily basis. And as recruiters/agencies – the competition is just as steep.
It feels like only yesterday I was making recommendations about how to make yourself comfortable and effective as we all shifted to work from home 100%. I bet you’ve changed and tweaked and reconsidered your work from home space a bunch since then, I know that I have. I used to make a rule about the dog not being in the office during office hours, and, well, he’s in my lap right now. Things change.
For a great many of us, things are about to change once again. We’re headed back to the office into a hybrid schedule—some balance of working from an office again, and working from home still. In preparation for the switch, here’s some tips to get you ready.
The other day I was driving down the street and I saw a national pizza shop chain offering iPhones to new hires. I’ve seen signs in windows offering $500 to new hires. I was in a meeting with my boss talking about his niece who was considering signing a contract as a nurse for unlimited hours because the pay was too good to refuse. Everywhere you look—there’s a shortage of candidates and hires. What’s the best offering to get them in your pipeline?
This past year has been weird. Back in March of 2020, hiring slowed way down, and we lost a lot of colleagues because none of us knew what was next. How could anybody accurately predict how the economy would react in the short or long term in light of everything? A year and some months later, and we’ve flipped to clamoring for candidates to staff back up as quickly as possible—and truth be told, it is proving hard to find enough!
As a recruiter, you are always on the hunt for new ways to engage and attract candidates to work for your organization and attracting talent has always been challenging. Finding talent after the unexpected events of 2020? Well, that’s been extra daunting, hasn’t it? But you’re a seasoned professional! You know that this is a journey, not a destination. Adding extra layers of safety measures to your hiring process was just the first step. As you wait for the world to open up, you need to keep the momentum going. As you maneuver yourself out of the woods and further into 2021 how can you think outside of the box when it comes to engaging with candidates?
Just because 2020 is over doesn’t mean that the search for the essential worker is over. So long as people are waiting for their vaccine, and ordering groceries online, and driving through testing centers, we’re still going to need to focus on continuing our hiring of those that kept us going through 2020, the brave, the courageous, the essential worker.
For those tasked with hiring essential workers – we have to think about all aspects of the hire, from where we find them, who we target, how we message them, when we can onboard, and what we do to keep them engaged.
