Managing the recruitment journey remotely
Staffing agencies across the globe have been affected by the sudden spread of Covid-19 and government measures to halt its progress.
Every industry and sector has been rocked by the outbreak, with some experiencing an uptick in demand – namely healthcare, transport, and logistics - and others seeing significant decreases in demand.
As recruiters, our role in this crisis is to connect capable employees to businesses looking to hire.
A considerable number of recruiters, unlike many other professions, are in the privileged position of being able to work from home and can manage the entire recruitment journey, from sourcing to onboarding, remotely.
It’s such a challenging time and whilst it’s not going to solve the macro issues, here is some advice on how to maintain current productivity and office-level efficiency from home.
Sourcing Through the Cloud
Cloud-based technology lets employees work from anywhere. This is ideal for enabling recruiters to work from home, and cloud-based platforms form the foundation of current efforts to find and place talent.
When sourcing candidates remotely, it is more important than ever that candidate and client records are kept up to date.
Keeping everyone in your team in the loop, maintaining statuses, closing jobs that are not truly open and updating the statuses of all open positions are more critical now than ever.
Recruitment is a team sport and while some recruiters are fortunate to have the technical infrastructure to work from home, it is critical that colleagues stay connected to support each other professionally and personally.
To this end, your CRM system can act as a single source of truth for your teams. Recruiters also benefit from CRM hotlists – aggregated lists based on any criteria you choose, such as jobs, candidates, and client contact – to maximise communication, collaboration, and prioritisation.
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For recruiting firms which use VMS integration solutions with their applicant tracking systems, increases in automation will likely result in decreases in time-to-fill open requisitions.
Facilitating Interviews
Communication is the key to successful recruiting. Since recruiters can no longer meet clients and candidates face-to-face, the very nature of our engagement with stakeholders has shifted.
Fortunately, we can fall back on videoconferencing, cloud-based telephony, and other digital communications tools. There are some great video interview platforms available to which can further streamline the recruitment process.
Standard advice applies here: plain backgrounds and minimal noise will help keep the candidate focussed, mute yourself when you’re not talking, and dress reasonably.
Onboarding
Onboarding in a time of social distancing is a challenge, but it is possible. At Bullhorn, we have a comprehensive remote new-hire onboarding strategy.
It begins with sending the new employee hardware before their start date, having numerous training and orientation webinars with them, videoconferencing regularly to establish rapport with teammates and direct supervisors, and building familiarity with messaging platforms.
By the end of the process, the new-hires are familiar with our basic processes and the tools we use for collaboration, idea-sharing and creativity. Ultimately, patience, mutual understanding, and reliance on remote working technology are the keys to success in socially distant onboarding.
Recruiting Can Be Done Remotely
Agencies that have established policies for working from home (and doing so efficiently and without sacrificing productivity) are likely experiencing less disruption currently.
However, there is no doubt that the circumstances the world is facing now are without comparison and will necessitate a continual revisiting of strategies.
A well-executed technical optimisation strategy will go a long way in helping employees build communication, collaboration, and prioritisation, which in turn will help them maintain their productivity and efficiency levels in the current environment.
Ultimately, we are fortunate to be able to use our tools from home and to have the great opportunity to support people and create some stability for them in these uncertain times.
By Peter Linas, Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and International, Bullhorn
