Recruitment Strategy during COVID-19

Hiring, staff productivity, and retention are very challenging for most organisations in this time of crisis which we all know as COVID-19. Companies, including ourselves, are being forced to adapt to a new norm of virtual working, including virtual team management.

As a result, management and hiring managers are reevaluating and fully reassessing the ‘lean-ness’ of their business and what other business opportunities may exist in this current climate to determine their business processes in the future and ultimately the whole structure of their organisation.

One thing is for certain, we need to adjust to remain competitive and efficient coming out of this. We at Citrus Connect have always lived the premise of keeping things simple, easy, and efficient for our candidates and clients. Maybe this is a time to purge your organisation?

Assess the current functions of the business

• As people are forced to work from home, assess what functions could be obsolete and automated, and what is critical to the business to make you lean, productive, and profitable
• The future of how people will do business will change (if not in the short term, definitely in the long term), and its a good move to be ahead of the curve
• Establish whether existing staff can be retrained as a first option
• Make a list of openings that you will now have

Consider new skills required

• It’s important you know exactly what roles are available and prepare a full job description – at Citrus Connect, we ask clients to consider;

1. Skill
2. Characteristics
3. Requirements

Continue to prioritise hiring

• In a market such as this, you may miss out on excellent candidates, so continue to pipeline candidates and create a candidate pool
• Continue to interview via many online platforms that are available as start dates can be decided later
• Focus on people skills during this time whilst interviewing, this is the time when candidates will choose a company based on its conduct during a crisis, which brings us to the last point of values

Company values are the core of everything

In such times as this, it is critical to keep the employees that you have engaged in a culture or positive mindset and well-being. This may be a time to re-establish your company values, what you stand for and how you show up for the world in a time of crisis.

This is when we truly need the words of Simon Sinek ‘Why leaders eat last?’. You are the lion protecting your pride!