The COVID-19 pandemic is rapidly changing the way we work and recruiting is changing along with it. In-person interviews are shifting to digital interviews and remote onboarding is becoming the new normal. But despite the changes we’re experiencing as a result of social distancing, providing candidates with a positive experience should remain a top priority.
In a recent interview, Mark Cuban explained that how companies treat their employees during the coronavirus epidemic will “define their brand for decades.” Emphasizing that employee safety should come first, Cuban said that employers have a responsibility to act in the best interest of their team members and build their employer brand accordingly. While that responsibility applies to current employees, it also extends to job seekers and suggests that candidate experience will continue to make or break employer brands for the foreseeable future.
Here are some tips for providing a great candidate experience during these uncertain times.
Make transparency a priority
As unemployment continues to skyrocket, many job seekers are scared about what the future holds for themselves and their families. To help candidates overcome these fears, and offer them a sense of security during this challenging time, it’s important to be candid about your business needs and company outlook.
This should include an overview of your projections for the coming year, as well as a clear sense of how the role they’ve applied for can help to address your current needs. In addition to giving candidates a comprehensive look at where your company is headed, this is an effective way to establish trust and help them determine if the role is right for them.
Communicate effectively and often
Communicating with candidates is always important, but as we move further away from in-person interactions, keeping candidates informed about where they stand is more crucial than ever. This is a good way to keep your candidates engaged as they go through the hiring process, as well as helping to alleviate the anxieties caused by the changing recruiting landscape.
“Many companies are trying to figure out how to do what they have been doing, and that’s recruit quality talent," says Madeline Laurano, founder of Aptitude Research. Explaining that the shifts we’ve seen over the past month are reshaping recruitment across the country, she emphasizes that talent acquisition professionals need to take new approaches to address the changing circumstances. Increased communication is one of those changes and it can significantly improve the recruitment process for both candidates and recruiters.
Use the virtual hiring tools at your disposal
While transparency and communication can have a big impact on candidate engagement, having the right virtual tools can set you apart when it comes to the overall candidate experience. Until recently, Laurano explains that many companies were “not using technology to enable a standardized approach” as they moved candidates through the hiring process. Since the shift to remote recruiting, however, she explains that virtual tools are more important than ever. “We’re in a different world and we need to think about digital transformation and digital interviewing as a big part of that.”
A candidate engagement platform can be an effective way of addressing many of the challenges raised by remote recruiting, including simplifying communication and making it easy to carry out digital interviews. What’s more, it can help to streamline your interview process by automating and personalizing many of the steps along the way—such as scheduling and follow-ups.
Although recruiting is continuing to change rapidly as we become accustomed to ‘the new normal,’ the foundations of hiring remain the same. To provide candidates with a positive experience, it’s important to replicate your best practices virtually and keep them engaged throughout each step of the process. By implementing a remote hiring strategy that takes communication and transparency into account, you’ll be able to maintain a great candidate experience and get talented new hires in the door.
Want to learn more about recruiting during this challenging time? Learn how digital interviews can help you keep your recruiting on track and how to onboard employees when you’re working remotely.
