2021 makes the promises of a post-pandemic world, but what does that really look like for hiring businesses?
What we can count on is that change will remain constant and recruitment will be zapped into the present from its slow-to-adapt past. That is better use of technology, better communication and talent engagement.
New year, new talent engagement strategy?
Talent engagement is what happens after you attract a job seeker to your organisation; the often neglected next step after talent acquisition. Includes before they apply for a role through to and including rejections, onboarding, and talent communities.
It’s important for your business to review how you connect with and engage candidates. Especially now, as how you once built meaningful relationships with candidates may not apply in a post-pandemic virtual world, where it’s expected hundreds more desperate job seekers could be flooding your inbox.
Here are four reasons why it needs your attention.
1. Remote recruitment + onboarding is the new norm
With more teams working remotely and physical interactions minimised to stem the spread of germs, virtual recruitment and onboarding is here to stay. So, step away from clunky and reactive and move towards precision.
The entire recruitment process will need to be transformed and new technologies adopted to streamline the candidate and hiring manager journey. This includes scheduling new jobs, chat bots for FAQs and job seeker capture, a better designed job application form, interview booking systems, and virtual interviews.
To ensure the candidate experience is seamless and key messages remain on brand, hiring managers may need to be trained on:
running effective panel interviews via Zoom
digital assessment centres
online assessments and metrics to enable better decision-making.
Consider how you can replicate your traditional physical warmth and engagement activities for a wholly virtual environment.
2. Employer needs have changed (and will continue to)
The pandemic and its unpredictable ebbs and flows have refreshed the demand for soft skills like agility, flexibility, and initiative at the expense of markers like, years of industry experience, for example.
What of your already qualified talent from previous recruitment drives?
There’s more incentive now to keep silver medalists warm and engaged with your employer brand, because what might have knocked them from first place previously could be precisely what you need now in your new world. Think about drip (email) marketing and talent communities to nurture warm leads.
3. Restricted movement affects access to global talent
With border closures and restrictions on movement in some places, access to global talent is stunted for the time being (where remote working isn’t an option for your business). Which means internal mobility and talent pools could be worth pursuing.
That *should* encourage better use of candidate and employee data and analytics.
You’re already collecting a lot of useful data about candidate and employee qualifications, skills, preferences, and personal information, but rarely is this data used again after a placement or rejection is made (think of the money and time you’ll save avoiding recruitment drives).
But you’ll need a solid internal structure and nurture strategy to do it well, of course.
4. Enhanced communication fills the disconnecting gap of lost face-to-face interactions
I may be bias, but communication and connection should always take centre stage. Generally speaking, it’s an overlooked component of the employee experience.
For Talent Acquisition and HR teams who once relied on physical connection via career events and open days, face-to-face recruitment and onboarding activities, you must adapt your communication strategy to effectively fill these gaps with warmth and brand engagement in the virtual world.
You must do more to establish trust and connection with target audiences at every possible touch point, as they can no longer rely on ‘gut feels’ and physical interactions to determine their fit and eagerness to work for your organisation.
Think drip (email) campaigns, text recruiting, chatbots, and engaging and relevant social media conversations.
Bring the hug and handshake to them virtually, with better recruitment marketing and candidate and new hire communication.
How will you better engage your talent in the virtual world?
Your first step may be to review your current engagement metrics, things like How long they spend on your careers page, how often they open your emails and click the links that take them to your site, what sort of social media post / blog / email topics they most engage with and when, candidate surveys, and even new hire metrics like first year engagement and cohesion (this could help identify gaps in your brand messaging and promise v. reality).
Once you have a baseline, you can start building a warmer, highly valuable talent engagement strategy.
Questions? Get in touch!