What should Recruiters be doing during Covid-19?

Today I sat down (virtually) and joined a webinar hosted by Liisi Ruuse, co-founder of Relancer, about what recruiters should be doing during the Covid-19 crisis.

Here are the main topic points:

1. What do you think some of the bigger changes in recruiting will be in the next 2-6 months?
2. If there is no demand in the roles I specialize in, can I switch?
3. What should recruiters do in the following months?
4. Do you expect there to be a huge influx of re-hiring when the WFH orders are lifted? If so, do you see any opportunity to build relationships with job seekers during this crises to be able to quickly make hires when positions open back up?

Speakers

Here are the speakers that participated in the webinar. This article is not direct quotes, but what I got out of each of their responses.

Tris Revill –– Global Sourcing Lead at Doctolib
Background: recruitment community builder, in-house recruitment lead, still hiring
Paris 📍

Käthe-Riin Tull –– Partner & Recruiter at TalentHub
Background: recruiting agency lead, adapting to the new situation
Tallinn 📍

Renita Käsper –– Co-founder of Recruitment Thursday and Talent Acquisition Team Lead at Babbel
Background: recruitment community builder and in-house recruitment lead, still hiring
Berlin 📍

Eva Baluchova –– Recruiter & Culture Builder, Founder of Wearebridge.io
Background: independent recruiter / entrepreneur, a remote work advocate
Amsterdam 📍

Hung Lee –– Founder of Workshape.io and Recruiting Brainfood
Background: recruitment community builder, weekly news curator with industry-wide insights
London 📍

What do you think some of the bigger changes in recruiting will be in the next 2-6 months?

We have already seen some massive changes. There has been a huge shift to remote work. This is likely to last for an extended amount of time. Some industries have gone completely bankrupt and only the people/recruiters who can adapt will survive.

Last year, there was lots of talking about the plucking of IT specialists or software engineers. Now, the talk is focused on healthcare workers and people working in the essential services. Recruitment will not lose its purpose. The need for top talent is still there. Even sectors that are having layoffs still need the best of the best.

If there is no demand in the roles I specialize in, can I switch?

It was stressed that adaptability is the most important skill for a recruiter during this time. Being able to adapt and pivot to the current situation is going to separate the people who prosper and who gets left behind.

Tris thought that people moving from tech-heavy roles into less technical roles would have more success than the other way around. He thinks one of the difficulties will be at the Hiring Manager level, educating them how to do remote hiring.

Hung thought that recruiters would have a difficult time if they were pivoting to a completely different industry - from tech into nursing for example. He stressed the importance for recruiters to adapt to the medium in which the job seekers want to interact. One example of this, is for nursing. Nursing candidates are more likely to hang out on facebook instead of linkedin. He also stressed that in tech, almost everybody has a laptop. In contrast - many essential workers only have a smartphone. That means, the way to target and reach these candidates is different.

Renita also stressed that while hiring for tech roles, recruiters may be hesitant to pick up the phones. But, calling people right when they apply to your job may be the best way to reach candidates in other industries.

What should recruiters do in the following months?

1. Eva: Keep learning and growing. New perspectives may give you a chance to calm down and see more opportunities in the market.very
2. Käthe-Riin: Adapt to this reality - just keep on doing things. Don't lose your head.
3. Tris: Try new things. If you haven't done something before - you can't know that you don't like it. Just try things. Everytime I've tried something new it's helped me become a better person.
4. Renita: One option can be first of all don't lose hope be positive about things. Look into other industries and adapt. Reskill yourself - for example if you are in tech, you can hire for sales positions. Take gigs that can transition into permanent job.
5. Hung: This is a huge shared experience that actually connects everyone. We have seen an amazing amount of community initiatives come out during this crisis which should give everyone a great deal of hope. Next week I am putting together a brainfood marathon to talk with people about examples of how they are helping during the crisis. Humanity is sharing this experience and humanity is responding

Do you expect there to be a huge influx of re-hiring when the WFH orders are lifted? If so, do you see any opportunity to build relationships with job seekers during this crises to be able to quickly make hires when positions open back up?

The general consensus was that things are not going to go back to 'normal'. Even when WFH orders are lifted, the shift back into offices will be gradual. When hiring, businesses are going to be looking at different skill sets than before.

They also thought now was a great time to continue building your talent pipelines. If you are there for people today, you will have lifelong connections with those people in the future.  

Tris said a good question to ask candidates would be when this is all over, what would you like to do next?

If you liked this summary, subscribe below! Have another webinar or podcast you'd like to get a summary of? Send an email to russell@deephire.com with a URL to the webinar/podcast, and what you would like to learn from it.