Webinar Series Top Takeaways: Hiring Bounce Back

While COVID-19 may have unexpectedly transformed today’s talent acquisition environment, it’s not a storm without a rainbow—a hiring rainbow. The ‘war for talent’ has shifted, and quality talent is awaiting hire. That’s why we hosted a series of HR Coffee Hours for talent acquisition leaders to come together and strategize on how to recruit and retain quality talent in this post-COVID world. Here are a few of the top takeaways from this discussion. 

Virtual Recruiting—it’s not going anywhere.  

“Virtual recruiting solutions are critical for the future of work,” stated by iCIMS Director of Talent Acquisition, Amy Warner. After our series of HR Coffee Hours, this was proven to be true. Now, this doesn’t mean candidate recruitment will continue to be solely virtual after COVID-19. Instead, it’s about incorporating and embracing the positive features that virtual recruitment offers to help make your hiring strategy even more effective post-COVID. 

Here are a few ways to do just that:

• Virtual job interviews. While they are something many talent acquisition professionals have more recently embraced due to COVID-19, don’t let them disappear in this ‘new normal.’ Virtual job interviews can not only save resources and time, but they can help broaden your talent reach. 

• Virtual job fairs. As stated by one webinar attendee, virtual job fairs can be the biggest “bang for your buck.” Not only are virtual job fairs more cost-effective, but they can virtually (no pun intended!) accomplish the same goal when done correctly. 

Tip: Hosting your own virtual job fair? Embrace a technology solution that offers ‘waiting rooms’ to create a job-fair-like environment.

• Work assignments. They are another great way to grasp a stronger idea of a candidate’s skills and strengths during the recruiting process. As an alternative to requesting examples of previous work, consider providing a work assignment for them to accomplish along with their application, when relevant to the job position. 

Strategize for Virtual Onboarding.

With remote recruiting comes… you guessed it: virtual onboarding and training. Employee orientation, employee training, first-day of work lunches, etc. all play a role in onboarding a new hire to the workplace and company culture. After months of experimenting, some of our webinar attendees shared their techniques for embracing virtual onboarding and making it a positive experience for both them and the new hire.

• Invest in an onboarding solution. Research shows that new hires decide in the first six months whether to stay with your organization or not, proving the importance of a successful onboarding solution. Consider an ATS that allows onboarding task creation and first-day team introductions. 

• Get creative with onboarding activities. Onboarding virtually doesn’t have to be a drag. Some webinar attendees are getting creative with engaging webinars or fun onboarding activities for new-hires. 
• Integrate your hiring solutions. Make virtual onboarding easier for you by integrating your hiring solutions. Integrating your screening solution to your ATS or Payroll solution can create a more effective and efficient onboarding process and experience for you and your hires.

Embrace Remote Work.

That’s right—embrace remote work! During our HR Coffee Hours, the idea that remote work is ‘here to stay’ was shared countless times. Sure, at the beginning of COVID-19, many employers and talent management professionals faced the difficulty of adapting to managing employees remotely. In fact, seven in ten employers were struggling to adapt to remote work in April. 

But, as the months have progressed, more and more organizations have embraced remote work—Twitter, Facebook, Square—just to name a few. Gartner Research also found that 74% of CFOs plan on permanently moving at least 5% of their in-office employees to remote work positions after COVID-19. 

From empowering employees to reaching greater top-tier talent, remote work has the potential to positively impact talent acquisition and management for your organization, so consider embracing it when possible!

Want more?! Visit our HR Coffee Hour page for the on-demand recordings and recaps of past HR Coffee Hours.