Since the global coronavirus crisis hit, recruitment has been in limbo. With the bigger picture unclear, and huge swathes of people working from home, many businesses have chosen to freeze their hiring processes while conditions become clearer. However, the cleverest companies are now starting to plan ahead and think about recovery –  and attracting and retaining the right talent is a very important strategic part of this process. How do you recruit quality candidates and strengthen your brand as an employer in post-Covid 19 times?

Boost Your Technological Capability

Every single area of operations is now more dependent than ever upon the right technological provisions, and talent acquisition is no different. Using the right technology can help to manage candidate communications during this time of uncertainty and rapid changes. Shifting to cloud based HR software can keep processes running smoothly, even with remote working practices.  The right solution can help you manage interviews, keep track of negotiations and offers, take into account paperwork that might be needed or even delayed such as visa applications and make sure the legal side of every new appointment is covered off.

Turn To Your Current Workforce

Or rather than looking externally, could you instead strengthen your internal recruitment and pipeline development of employees? Creating employee loyalty is the holy grail, and one really strong way to make sure it’s covered is to pursue a policy of promoting internally first, and using stretch projects and professional development to source the skills your business needs from your existing pool of staff. Now might be a good time to implement a comprehensive skills assessment and training review, and look at investing some of that recruitment budget into developing people instead and filling the skills gap another way.

Reassess Your Working Methods

The enforced conditions of the lockdown across the world have brought more of a focus on working methods. For years now, employees have been actively seeking the opportunity to be home-based in order to achieve a better work-life balance, and yet a lot of companies have been slow to develop their home working provision. Now studies are emerging showing that home based workers are happier, more loyal to their company and more productive. After all, without the wasted time and stress of a commute, they are much freer. The key to making this work has been getting the right platforms in place  –  software for remote collaborative working, ensuring that there is regular contact with instant messaging and video calling. This is a learning curve that most businesses have had to tackle rapidly over the past few months, but shouldn’t be abandoned too quickly, as Millennial and Gen Z talent actively seeks remote working opportunities. See it as an opportunity to offer more flexible working practices as a reason to join. You may want to go one step further and think outside of the box to offer more roles on an occasional or a part time basis – this can also be supportive of advancing equality goals for your business as well by accommodating those whose lifestyle struggles to accommodate old-fashioned linear working patterns.