Effectively Recruiting in a Post-Pandemic Market: 6 Strategies to Try

It’s an understatement to say the pandemic changed everything, and one of the biggest things the pandemic changed is how people work. The rise of telecommuting, working from home, and hybrid in-person/online arrangements have led to massive changes in the global economy. Companies large and small that don’t keep up with the workforce’s demands for remote flexibility will feel left behind pretty fast.

Recruiting is an aspect of work that the pandemic has significantly impacted, not just because of the demands for remote flexibility. Employers must reconsider where they recruit, what channels they recruit through, and how they address the emotional toll the pandemic has had on the workforce.

Here are six recruiting strategies you can try in the post-pandemic landscape.

1. Consider Recruiting Internally

Though the recruiting internally vs. recruiting externally debate has raged on for years, and both sides make valid points, the research tends to side with recruiting internally.

Recent research published in Administrative Science Quarterly shows that 61% of external hires were more likely to face job termination. The same study found that internal recruits generally went through promotion faster and had lower voluntary and involuntary exit rates.

Internal recruiting could mean giving a trusted employee a promotion, transferring a hard worker with versatile skills from one department to another, or calling on retired employees to gauge their interest in returning.

Internal recruitment is a great strategy to employ during the pandemic because existing employees already know the protocol. They understand the remote flexibility accommodations, and you can cut back on exposure to new people.

2. Turn Your Recruitment Eye Internationally

Though internal recruiting is undoubtedly a clever strategy, the opposite is advantageous too. International recruiting is another excellent strategy for adapting your recruiting flow to the post-pandemic landscape.

COVID has transformed the hiring process, and some say it’s for the better. Why hire from New York and pay New Yorker salaries if half your employees can Zoom in from as far away as Mumbai?

International talent pools have never been more attractive. It’s not just the expanded candidate pool, either. Before the pandemic, employers would have to sponsor international employees with H-1B and EB visas. Now, with remote international work, you can increase your workforce diversity and skip all the onerous paperwork.

A recent study by McKinsey that studied 800 types of work in eight countries showed that remote work was not only feasible but did not reduce productivity. Approximately 20-25% of all workforces, 3-5 days a week, could make this transition and maintain business continuity.

3. Highlight Your Remote Accommodations

You should not only be open to offering your employees remote flexibility—you should be advertising it.

A staggering 89% of employees said that they expect the option to work remotely all or at least some of the time after the pandemic ends. Alienating 89% of the workforce isn’t in your best interest. Listening to and adapting to their needs is a much better strategy.

The recruitment rules of the post-pandemic game are to go remote-flexible or go out of business. You don’t need to offer all employees the option to work entirely from home, but you need the option to be available.

Many companies opt for hybrid models, working remotely part of the week and commuting into the office the other part. That can save employers costly commuting expenses and save the business on overhead costs like utilities and office leasing.

4. Avoid Burnout by Stressing Work-Life Balance

In addition to emphasizing your remote work flexibility, companies should emphasize their attention to work-life balance. If the pandemic taught anything, it’s that life is precious.

Recruiters need to promote wellness initiatives, mental health programs, and scheduling flexibilities geared toward emotional wellbeing. Companies need to show that they are adaptable, listen to their employees, and care for their health and safety. Otherwise, employees may look elsewhere or be less productive.

A focus on wellness doesn’t just mean physical health. One study found that women whose spouses work 50+ hour weeks suffer from higher stress and have diminished satisfaction in their relationships. An imbalanced work/life flow can lead to unnecessary conflict and grief.

A healthy work-life balance is becoming more and more prized as the pandemic allowed people to spend time with their loved ones. Employers who take an active role in helping employees create that balance are highly attractive to the post-pandemic workforce.

5. Institute Empathy Training

It’s not just work-life balance and mental wellbeing programs that you should be promoting at the hiring stage. Empathy training initiatives are crucial in the post-pandemic landscape.

There is a whole new set of challenges facing employees, and job seekers want to know those on the managerial side understand. Empathy training ensures that folks at all levels of the company meet on common ground.

Empathy training includes courses, strategies, and exercises meant to instill compassion and understanding at the managerial level. We all assume those skills are there, but it’s often true that they’re in short supply, and employees suffer as a result.

Now more than ever, employees struggle with health-related, emotional, and financial problems that impact their work performances. Empathy is a critical skill for management teams to employ when engaging with the post-pandemic workforce. Employees simply don’t have the patience to deal with unempathetic managers anymore.

It’s especially crucial to promote empathy training sessions to prospective hires. It shows your management team is actively trying to understand their employees, making your company the kind of place where people want to work.

6. Optimize Your Onboarding Process

Want to recruit smarter? Optimize the way you onboard new hires. The most innovative recruiters are exploring new social recruiting channels, leveraging data analytics, and doing it all virtually to attract the best talent. But you’ll never pull any of it off with a disorganized onboarding process waiting for new hires on the other side.

One of the easiest ways to streamline your onboarding process is to adopt a new workflow management software. Applicant tracking systems (ATS) have also gotten so sophisticated that they can capture almost every step of the recruiting process. From scouting new talent to managing multiple job openings and scheduling interviews, ATS can help you do it all.

Leveraging new technologies toward recruiting the best talent is the way to go in the post-pandemic market.

Find Great Talent

The pandemic has changed the job market substantially, and you need strategies to keep up with its ever-evolving nature. At ScoutLogic, we provide quality employment background checks to help you attract and build a vibrant, diverse, and dedicated workforce.

With our dedicated Scout service model, you’ll receive a dedicated Scout to support your recruiter and HR team. Our Scouts will become like extensions of your team. Call today to get a quote to get started on finding the best talent.

David Garcia

David Garcia is the co-founder and CEO of ScoutLogic. David is also a senior operating advisor for Norwest Venture Partners. David is a member of the boards of ScoutLogic, YipitData, and Supplier.io and was formerly on the boards of Infutor and Avetta. He has over 25 years of B2B commercial leadership experience in data & analytics companies.