Navigating Employee Recruitment During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Over the past couple of days, I’ve seen a lot of companies looking to hire either an extremely small group of people, or a very large group of people.

Slice Communications has been researching and developing an employer brand communications methodology over the past few years. That being said, I wanted to share some tips with you on how to recruit, hire and promote your employer brand in these uncertain times. 

Be Clear and Consistent

The first thing to think about is how you can communicate effectively about what your company is doing to help people right now. A lot of people are trying to help, so be clear about your role in the current situation and how you can assist. Then, be very clear in your communication about the particular job that you are hiring for and what that job’s responsibility is in the overall effort. 

Introduce New Hires 

The next thing you want to do is make sure you are promoting and celebrating the people that you are hiring. In normal times, we would recommend waiting around 90 days to see if an employee ends up being the right cultural fit and person for the job before you promote that they are working for your company. 

However, considering the current circumstances, we are expediting a lot of things. With that said, when you are onboarding someone, think about how you are going to communicate externally that someone has joined your team. 

This messaging will do a couple of things for your company:

• It will show the new hire that they’ve selected the right place and that your company appreciates them. 
• Their network will see that you’ve hired them, which will open your company up to other people that may also be good fits for your company. 

Simple promotional elements like visual content, photos of new hires, blurbs about their background, or videos expressing their excitement about joining the team will go a long in building your employer brand and showcasing to other people the kind of employee you are looking to hire right now. 

Keep in Touch

You’ll also want to regularly update all prospective employees that are currently in your employee recruiting CRM, or in your pipeline one way or another. Maybe there was someone a while ago that you didn’t hire for whatever reason, but now you have a job available that is a good fit for them. 

So, go back to your database of people who have applied for jobs, take a look at all of the email addresses that you have, and develop an email marketing campaign to those people letting them know what you are looking for and what you need right now. If you want to learn more about recruiting or Slice’s Employer Brand Communications offering, click here to start a conversation.

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