The Biggest Challenges Recruiters Facing at the Moment

Talent acquisition has always been a demanding discipline, and in recent years its main challenges have been focused on finding talent quickly and efficiently, even as unemployment has declined. But in the wake of the coronavirus, the recruitment of managers and their teams is facing a host of new problems that are changing and expanding every day.

In the short term, talent acquisition teams are racing to find ways to turn this historically delicate human process into a virtual one. They find out how to work effectively from home, conduct video interviews, make successful offers (to candidates the hiring manager may not have met) and bring new employees on board from a distance.

And as the answers to these concerns blossom, bigger problems emerge. In many companies the number of new hires has declined, while in others the demand for new employees has skyrocketed. Budgets, targets and headcount are all being seriously reconsidered. As a result, when recruiting, managers ask themselves what to do with their teams, which are largely unprepared for a working environment where they may still have time.

To get an idea of what recruiters are focusing on, we conducted virtual interviews with numerous managers in talent acquisition and interviewed over 250 talent professionals.

And we'd love to hear from you. Send us a message about your biggest challenges right away. Or about the innovative approach your team has developed to stay productive, healthy or sane. Now more than ever, the recruitment community will need to share concerns, best practices and support to help overcome the eddies and shallows we currently face.

Here are some of the most important short- and long-term issues you have already told us you are working on:

In the short term: Take care of the immediate business

Due to the effects of the corona virus, many of your team's basic tactics and tools have become somewhat or completely irrelevant in recent weeks. Recruitment events and conferences have been cancelled. On-site interviews have been cancelled. Drug testing and so-called "wet signatures" are almost impossible at the companies or in the industries that need them. Personal onboarding is a taboo - we cannot get together in groups and we cannot go to the office. The work at hand feels different and presents us with some overarching challenges:

So that your team can successfully recruit from home

Many recruiters are now working from home for the first time and are considering how to both stay productive and stay connected. To help recruiters stay productive, team leaders can help them by providing them with best practice guides and tutorials. Also, make sure that your teammates have the appropriate tools to work from home. Some companies offer cash to their employees to help them set up the WFH. Others have offered to reimburse reasonable expenses and asked employees to act as owners. The goal is not a specific dollar figure, but to make sure your team knows what help is available.

But it may be even more important to help your recruiters stay connected during the coronavirus crisis than to keep them productive (especially when their requirements start to shrink). They revel in relationships, which is why they became recruiters. Encourage them to stay in touch with each other as they adapt to the new normality, whatever that may be.

A team thread in your Chat/IM tool is essential. Encourage them to bring their whole self into your virtual water cooler. Lily Zheng, a director of Microsoft China, shared on the Microsoft 365 blog how important this kind of support was in the early days of the Corona virus shutdown. "We use our online tools," Lily wrote, "for more than just work, sharing photos of family and pets and checking in on each other all day long. You can even go further and involve your family as active participants: For example, one company is hosting a virtual talent show for employees' children.

A universal tip for the WFH is to take regular breaks to stay mentally healthy and recharge your batteries throughout the day. "A great benefit of taking breaks," says Jason Yuan, senior recruiter at Electronic Arts, "is to build a community by meeting other members of your team with whom you don't normally interact because of location or focus on a customer group. And remember to maintain the separation between your work life and your personal life, even if they now have the same address.

Replacing personal interviews with video interviews

In the LinkedIn survey mentioned above, 58% of TA professionals stated that a major impact of the coronavirus would be to convert personal interviews into virtual interviews.

Interviews have long been a central part of the recruitment process and are often the place where a decision about the best candidate really takes shape and where candidates decide whether the company really clicks for them. Make sure that your recruiters know what best practice is and that they have guidelines that detail what is expected of them.

Encourage your recruiters to be as empathetic as possible. An internal LinkedIn guide to video interviews suggests: "Be aware that your candidate may not be familiar with [our video conferencing platform] and may be late or nervous - be patient and calm. Give your candidates a chance to show their best.

Switching to video interviews will not only help your company continue to fill key positions, but can also serve as a test of the long-term viability of remote interviewing for your company.

Chris Hoyt, president of CareerXroads, says this is an opportunity for some companies "that have not been able to do video interviews before" to "jump technological hurdles. Now they'll actually be able to pilot, he says, and establish some metrics for how video interviews compare to on-site assessments.

Filling the gaps created by postponed or cancelled recruitment events

Talent acquisition teams had to cancel a number of events that are central to the recruitment process - career fairs, meetings with diversity organisations, campus visits, conference attendance.

"Between March and April," says Margaret Luo Evans, Chief of Staff of LinkedIn's global talent acquisition team, "LinkedIn had more than 40 events, whether they were recruitment events we hosted or events we attended, such as South by Southwest or the NSBE (National Society of Black Engineers) Convention.

Companies have started to develop workarounds (which in some cases can be financed from unused travel and conference budgets). Many have opted for video interviews (see above) or live video events using tools such as LinkedIn Live.

The global accounting firm KPMG uses both approaches. "We have a virtual tool that we use for a person presenting in front of a group of people," says Sean Treccia, the firm's director of campus recruitment. "Some recruiters choose to do this, while others choose to schedule individual follow-ups. This has given our recruiting team a lot more work. You'd think if we cancelled an event, it would make our work easier. But the reality is that we are now trying to plan 75 individual follow-ups. That took a lot more time and effort".

Getting recruiters to make offers to candidates they don't know yet and getting candidates to accept them

More than half (54%) of the talent acquisition specialists in LinkedIn's latest survey believe that their companies will make fewer offers. And many HR managers, particularly in APAC (the Asia-Pacific region), express reservations about pulling the trigger on a candidate without ever having met him or her.

But even if your company continues to keep pace with their offers, candidates may be hesitant to accept them. First of all, candidates may be unsure whether the offers will be kept. Other candidates may wonder whether relocation is an ill-considered action at this time. "People may not be willing to move," says Margaret, "because they think, 'The world is in chaos right now. Does it really make sense for me to take a new job?'"

And even if the candidates are willing to take the plunge and come on board, the background check required to make an offer final can have its own hiccups. Some companies that require drug testing are unsure how to do it virtually, and have either postponed offers or asked new hires to sign affidavits declaring that they are drug-free. Other companies require ink signatures on some of their documents and have found that this requirement is a catch.

Effective integration of a new employee from home

Onboarding is an exciting event for a newcomer and a crucial event for your business - successful integration into the team increases productivity and employee retention. Some companies have temporarily abandoned onboarding due to "shelter-in-place" orders, while others have reduced it to online documents or canned video.

However, a few companies have turned to remote onboarding years ago. Dell, for example, has converted all of its onboarding materials to a digital format and has a Day 1 Success Team that supports new hires via chat/IM, phone calls and email. Stack Overflow provides newly hired engineers with a mentor to guide them through a six-week onboarding process. Ideas for creating a virtual onboarding program are provided in this six-step overview.

Other companies are following this advice and transforming their onboarding programs into virtual experiences. For example, LinkedIn has transformed its existing one-day onboarding program into a week-long virtual event using videoconferencing software, videos, live speakers and presenters, a site for newly acquired companies, and a digital scavenger hunt.

Long-term: strategic challenges for the way into the future

While the immediate logistical challenges need to be addressed first, leaders in recruitment are also thinking beyond this transition period - asking questions about how their teams will manage things throughout the coronavirus crisis and beyond.

Maintaining a positive candidate experience amidst all these changes and uncertainties

At a time when many companies are beginning to slow down or freeze recruitment, managing your candidate experience does not seem to be a top priority. But the way you deal with candidates now still affects your talent brand in the long run - and can make it harder to attract candidates when you're ready to start hiring again.

According to our recent survey, nearly 46% of hiring professionals said the outbreak had a negative impact on the candidates' experience in their company.

Regardless of how your hiring plans change, you probably still have candidates in the pipeline who entered the hiring funnel weeks or months ago. Whether you are putting things on hold, building a totally remote candidate experience, or continuing the business as usual, it is critical to keep candidates on track in such a rapidly changing situation. Approach them proactively and let them know what to expect.

Communicate your corporate culture to the candidates without personal meetings.
Your corporate culture will be tested in the coming months. In many companies, this culture is best revealed in person, through office interactions, hallway conversations and team building events. Maintaining a strong culture with a completely remote workforce will look different, but it is no less important - especially if you are trying to hire employees.

An interview and site visit is an easy way to immerse your candidate in your corporate culture. Since this option is off the table for many companies, talented leaders are looking for new ways to communicate the values and overall mood of their organization.

Storytelling is a key skill for talent acquisition managers and recruiters, but a journey for the candidate that takes place at a distance makes it even more important. Just as you ask behavioural questions to get real examples of how candidates work, telling stories about how your organisation has dealt with different situations can help your candidates to present themselves as part of the team.

Now might also be a good time to refresh or re-create all the assets that highlight your corporate culture, whether it's a giant slide deck or a fun video. For example, when LinkedIn recruiting coordinators confirm an upcoming interview, they'll embed a video highlighting #LinkedInLife or link to a page where candidates can learn more about what it's like to work here.

Thinking about personnel planning for the coming months

The coronavirus crisis is extremely dynamic and difficult to predict, which of course makes it difficult to outline what your recruitment needs will be in the coming months.

In our recent survey, 62% of talent professionals said that the outbreak has had a negative impact on their company's ability to hire as planned. This may be because the plans themselves have changed or are still uncertain.

Many companies have also discussed or introduced a temporary hiring freeze. Approximately half (54%) of the talent professionals surveyed expect job requirements to decline.

Looking further ahead, talent acquisition executives are also considering how a large-scale economic recession would affect their company and its long-term hiring opportunities. While some companies are more obviously affected by the coronavirus restrictions (e.g., the travel industry), even companies that operate their businesses in a completely remote location could be damaged by the global economy operating at half speed.

But even if many industries are slowing down, a few are seeing an increase in new hires: Amazon, Walmart, grocery stores, pharmacies, and grocery suppliers have all recently announced plans to hire tens of thousands of employees in the coming weeks.

Whether your business is booming or faltering, maintaining a strong employee experience during this period is not just an HR issue: how you treat your employees now will impact your employer brand long after the pandemic is over.

The companies that put the experience of their employees first today will be best placed to attract candidates when it's time to start recruiting in bulk again. It will also make it easier to keep your most valuable employees in times of unrest and uncertainty.

What to do if recruiters have additional bandwidth?

If there is or is expected to be a hiring freeze in your company, you will soon face another challenge: how best to use the time of recruiters when no hiring is required?

While attending standard training and compliance courses is one option, many talent organizations are also taking this time to educate recruiters: skills such as data analysis, storytelling, and most importantly, adaptability will be invaluable to recruiters this decade.

Other teams, such as LinkedIn's, are making their skills available to health organizations and helping them find much needed talent. We've also heard of leaders taking this time to take a step back and dive deep into diversity and inclusion, building pipelines and identifying opportunities to create a more diverse workforce in the future.

Concluding thoughts

Brendan Browne, LinkedIn's global head of recruiting, says: "We asked our interviewers to be even more compassionate and thoughtful when children are around or noise is in the background.

Brendan's advice can be applied to most of the issues facing recruiters today - be more compassionate and thoughtful. In a time of social detachment, try to stay close to candidates and colleagues.