Who’s Going to Be on Your Business Bus Post COVID-19?

As states start to open up from their COVID-19 shutdown orders, it’s a great time to start thinking about where your business is heading and what people you need in critical seats on your bus. With changes to the business landscape and to the labor pool, now may be a perfect time to start thinking about hiring again. Specifically, we recommend you:

Fill your funnel early: Finding and hiring the best talent takes time. Affinity’s average fill time is 45-60 days. Don’t wait to start looking for a great candidate on the day you need them. Plan ahead, determine what you need, and start the process early. There are talented people who will now entertain new opportunities who wouldn’t have done so two months ago. Beat your competition to the best talent!

Use technology: As social distancing eases up, we’ll certainly want to get back to in-person interviewing. But until that time, it’s critical to start embracing video interviewing. There are many platforms that make it easy to meet face-to-face without leaving your home or office. Zoom, Skype, Zoho Meeting, and Microsoft Teams are examples. Most platforms offer a free trial and are easy to set up. We believe our new normal will find many companies using video interviewing as a standard practice for some, if not all, of their open positions.

Make offers, even if you’re not quite ready: You can lock in A-players now with the understanding that onboarding may look a little different and may be slightly postponed. Consider offering delayed start dates, sign-on bonuses for delayed starts, and/or remote work/online training. Things are uncertain for everyone so candidates will be understanding of extended onboarding timelines. And, by getting commitment on both sides of the table, there’s less risk of losing them to another offer.

At Affinity, we are seeing a significant uptick in the interest of businesses to start the recruiting process early. If you’re one of them, or if you are just getting your materials together for a likely hiring process, we are here to help!

Check out our recruiting services HERE!