Return to The Office: How to Optimize Your Recruitment for Post Pandemic

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics data from April 1, only 10% of employed Americans worked remotely in March. 

So, did we all get lost in these flexible yet confusing new work arrangements? And is there a way to maximize employee wellbeing while thinking of the company's success? 

The truth is, there is no one secret recipe a company and its HR teams can follow to overcome these changes we are experiencing. However, flexible recruitment and team management practices will go a long way toward the company's overall success. 

Return to the office: Optimize your recruitment 

Recruitment is a dynamic field that keeps changing with every new reality at each company and the world outside it. Therefore, recruitment depends on various factors, including recent pandemics, geographical, cultural, and generational differences, new technological advancements, and many other factors. 

Therefore, recruitment as a field requires constant adapting and flexibility in its approach, especially in this post-pandemic period! So here are some things to keep in mind when recruiting new talent these days: 

1. Battle fiercely competitive job market

2. Focus on skills instead of roles

3. Consider contingent workers

4. Leverage recruitment technology

Battle fiercely competitive job market 

If we thought that the job market was competitive a few years ago, we were in for a surprise! In the middle of the pandemic, we started seeing the rising trend of Great Resignation and a sort of employee liberation hitting the job market. As a result, what used to be a company-centric job market quickly shifted into a candidate-centric market. That means that the stigma of regularly switching jobs entirely disappeared, and candidates started focusing more on their mental health and requiring a workplace environment they believe they deserve. 

In such a market, it is easy for an HR department and, even more specifically, a company's recruitment team to get lost with all new requirements from the candidates' side while having in mind company goals. 

However, setting up a flexible recruitment strategy that combines:

1. Rounded candidate experience, 

2. Building a recognizable employer brand so that the candidates know what you stand for as a company and what they can expect from working at your company

3. While leveraging recruitment marketing strategy to know precisely in front of which candidates to put your job ads will help you will stand out from the companies.

The key is to "track how the job market is breathing" and explore ways in which you can offer and present your candidates with jobs at your organization. The post-pandemic period is not just the current situation on the job market but also everything that will be happening in the future. And, the market will keep experiencing changes in the upcoming period, for which creating a recruitment strategy that can handle changes in it will be the thing that counts. 

Focus on skills instead of roles 

One way to adapt your recruitment strategy is by focusing on the hard and soft skills of your candidates and your employees and making it a core for hiring. The old approach of focusing on the roles you hire for may no longer be a good fit for your company. Due to constant changes in the way we work - mainly depending on the restrictions caused by the pandemic, your workforce should be adaptive. 

As the new research show, most employees refuse to come back to the full-time, despite more and more managers trying to force them to come back. Although managers are going so far as to introduce pay cuts and other penalties, the freedom that employees once gained by being able to work from home (without productivity levels being compromised) will hardly be taken away from them.

Therefore, the goal is not to force something upon employees and be surprised once competitors start taking over your talent but hiring people who will be able to produce great work even when given the freedom of working from home. And, they need the right skills, not necessarily connected to their field of work. 

Consider contingent workers

One pretty practical advice we can give you for recruitment in this "the newest normal" is to increase your attention towards contingent workers. Contingent work is becoming increasingly popular worldwide. The pandemic only continued and pushed this trend further, which started developing even before the pandemic. 

If your company develops a specific model of working after the pandemic - for instance, decides to accept only on-site work but you struggle to fill in some positions this way, consider outsourcing freelance workers. 

You can continue building a culture that works for your company and have the best talent working on each project. Additionally, hiring contingent workers has other advantages associated with lowering the cost of each employee. Check out the article Pros and Cons of Hiring Full-time, Part-time and Freelance Employees to see which type of workers suit your organization's post-pandemic. 

Leverage recruitment technology

If we learned anything from the pandemic, technology is our extended arm at work. We cannot even imagine the period of pandemics and lockdowns if it weren't for technology to keep us all connected. At work, it enabled us to keep performing almost as if there weren't a global pandemic happening outside our apartments. Unfortunately, when it comes to recruitment, the situation is no different. 

Having a recruitment solution can help you:

1. Find and attract the right talent

2. Setup a more structured hiring process

3. Nurture candidates' interest in the company

4. Analyze your hiring success

Ultimately, post-pandemic will be a busy period for recruitment. Only time will tell if we will be returning to the offices permanently or if there will be genuinely long-term consequences of the pandemic in how we all perceive and conduct work. However, a few things are certain; the increased attention to candidate experience and building a strong employer brand presence will keep being important to recruiters worldwide. Therefore, having a recruitment solution that will enable you to take care of the manual work and give you space to focus on the strategic aspect of your job is what will count as a competitive advantage. 

Optimize your post-pandemic recruitment with TalentLyft

TalentLyft is an easy to use recruitment software which combines Applicant Tracking, Recruitment Marketing, Sourcing and Talent CRM in one powerful solution. Find and attract the right talent and make sure to nurture their interest in the company for the benefit of building long-term relationships. By having one tool in which is everything you need to hire top talent, you will have space for your recruitment strategy to shine! 

Get a free trial or book a demo call with one of our product specialists and learn more how can we assist your recruitment post pandemic!