We know from a firsthand experience that you recruiters are accustomed to handling effectively various people and communications issues with creativity. That is in your DNA and job description. So here is one more challenge, providing your candidates with the desired level of candidate experience you used to have before the COVID-19 era.
How do you ensure that candidate experience is not compromised and your employer brand not only remains attractive but impresses your candidates with your COVID-19 response?
The answer is simple but requires some planning and effort. First and foremost, you need to put yourself is your candidate’s shoes. If you were a candidate right now, what would matter to you? How would you think and act and what would you like to know for a company?
Include your company’s COVID-19 response in your employer brand pitch.
A candidate would definitely like to know how your company reacted in the pandemic. What measures did you take and how you plan to continue protecting your employees? How does work from home looks like? How is generally the team handling work from home? These are some of the topics you need to consider.
Include a more personal note on how your candidate is doing during this period.
You are a people’s person hence it is only natural that you show genuine interest on how an individual is doing during these times. I am insinuating that you should get into details or deeply analyzing the situation with your candidates but being empathic and asking them how they cope reveals that you care and conveys the message that you will care for them once they come to work for your company. Not discussing such a topic will feel like ignoring the elephant in the room, while overanalysing could potentially put candidates in an awkward position. Finding your balance is very important.
Make digital recruitment easy and comprehensive.
Hiring completely digitally maybe somewhat intimidating and weird to some candidates. No matter how tech savvy someone is, an interview process via a platform is relatively new and removes the more personal contact that the physical interview has by default. Do not assume that candidates feel comfortable with these types of interviews and tools. Providing them with the necessary material on the ‘how to’ of the process will make candidates feel comfortable and less stressed.
Giving an idea of the ‘office’ experience.
Back in the normal times you would normally conduct a physical interview at your premises, a candidate would come to your space and spend some in the reception area, or meet briefly and shake hands with the team he would work with getting a clear idea of how his reality would be if he decided t join you. Now you just need to recreate some of this experience digitally. You may create a video of the team introducing themselves to potential new hires. You could also develop material (photos or videos) of how your offices look like and include some of the company’s ways of celebrating success and anniversaries.
Encourage questions (and mean it).
Make sure to be open and encourage questions from your candidates. This is a very unique period and no matter how thoughtful you may be or how carefully you redesign your employer brand strategy you need to stay close and understand candidates. Encourage them to drop you questions even after the interview should they need to know about a process or anything that was omitted during your interaction with them.