Is hiring frozen in your country?
This is a piece by www.wearelaika.com, a platform for matching Tech professionals with companies. Check out more content here.
Hiring is at a standstill in many countries. if your country is one of those, as an HR manager, Talent Acquisition Officer or CTO, you are probably left with more free time on your hands. The coronavirus crisis stopped your usual hectic recruitment process or at least slowed it down.
But the fact that everything goes slowly or is currently paused in hiring, doesn’t have to mean that you aren’t an important part of the company. On the contrary — we are at a time where the company culture and the brand we’ve built around our businesses come to shine and will be one of the key determining factors to see who comes out of this unscathed.
So now what?
Prepare for the hiring surge that comes after all of this ends!
Here are a few bits of advice on how to use your time in a smart way, and plan ahead of what is yet to come:
1.Organize a team workshop and improve your strategy
Your company is comprised of the people in it, and they are the best judges of its value, worth, strengths, and weaknesses. The first people you should turn to when pinpointing the characteristics and values of your brand are exactly the coworkers.
Organize a team workshop on growth and collaboration. Do an exercise in which everyone describes the company in their own way, and ask them to focus on different aspects. Where do they see the company growing? What do they think are the core values that define it? What do they want to see happening differently? Where do they see room for improvement? What makes them be proud to be a part of the team? How would they pitch a workplace there to a potential candidate?
Use the answers to these questions as a direction in which you want to see the brand promise evolve.
You can also use this time to organize some workshops that the employees might think are needed or interesting. Group therapy, creative thinking, storytelling, leadership, psychology in the workplace… Many interesting ideas that can prompt mutual progress in your company.
2.Improve your Employee Value Propositions
You probably have well-crafted, word-by-word perfect value propositions you use for acquisition. But the company is ever-evolving, together with the people who come and go. Everyone leaves a mark in the company culture and changes up the values you share as a company.
Ask the employees to write five value propositions that encapsulate working at your company best. You might be surprised by the way they describe your company. A fresh perspective and new wording might open up new possibilities for the way you pitch your company as the best place to work at.
Think about the acquisition strategy yourself. Or, to phrase it even more correct — rethink it.
Try to align the value propositions with the current tendencies and trends in the world.
For example, if you used “The best location in the city and spacious, modern offices”, that doesn’t mean much in the current connotation, right? It is better to phrase it into “Highly-functioning, flexible team spread across the country”.
3.Carefully define job roles in your company for A+ job descriptions
You probably have an archive of previous job descriptions and some data on how well they performed.
Write down the things you learned from before. Here is what you should focus on:
The tone of voice — developers don’t necessarily like an overused, cliché wording in job descriptions. Try to be as precise and as direct as possible. Persuade them, but don’t promise things in the job description that aren’t true.
Be professional and explain the full scope of work and responsibilities they will have.
Use the new Employer Value Propositions you wrote with the help of your coworkers before.
Channels — Make a list of all the places you have advertised a Job Ad before. List out all the pros and cons of using social media, Job Boards, private messages, recruitment strategies… Don’t advertise everywhere — just the places that actually bring you values.
Culture and benefits — Make sure to let potential candidates in the future know all about your company. What do you believe in? What do you value most in workers? How will you support their career progress? Why are you different and better than other companies? What products are you working on? How are you making a difference in the world? Who are the people that work there and what are they like?
Write all about the things that make your workplace a unique and vibrant culture. People like the small things that make businesses differentiate and anyone who feels they belong to your culture will be drawn to what you offer.
Visuals — A good Job Description is supported by a visual that goes well with it. Is it a photo of your team? The offices? Cool design by your graphic designer that will perform well and leave a good first impression? It isn’t as important as the text, but it definitely draws attention.
You might also ask for help from the developers to write down all the technologies and frameworks future workers will use. Spend some time to understand what you are talking about in the job ad. Developers want to deal with HRs who know what they are enlisting them for.
4.Employer Branding
After establishing the new Value Propositions, think of all the improvements you can make in your Employer Branding strategy. Use social media channels to show your culture, team, and brand. Communicate your brand promise accordingly and make sure you are approachable.
There are many ways and channels for you to show your brand. During this time, when recruitment is halted, think of innovative ways to reach potential employees and present your culture through your team, offices, content about working at your company, or taking part in conferences (online 😊).
5.Create a Laika Company Page
Your company is a tapestry of personalities and experiences that make it unique. And your potential future employee needs to know what makes it different. Employers and candidates are essentially looking for the same thing: the right fit. You can help them find it on your Laika Company Page.
Create a unique and customized profile where you can showcase culture, values, projects, team, technologies, office vibes, benefits… and what it’s really like to work for them — setting the right expectations during their continuous interaction with the community.
