In Mid-March when ‘stay at home’ orders began coming down from governor after governor, almost every company hit the pause button on hiring. For some, this pause was temporary, while others are still in a holding pattern. In the current environment, we are essentially seeing three approaches being taken by organizations when it comes to hiring. Clients are telling us the following about their current strategy.
The first strategy is a complete hiring freeze and a wait and see approach. The hope has been that this would pass quickly, but now half of the year has passed us by and we are 4 months into the pandemic. With no plan of action moving forward, some organizations run the risk of being left behind when it comes to finding and hiring talent in the future.
Strategy number two has been more of a slow move forward, with some active searches and initial phone or video interviews, but it basically stops there. Companies are choosing to wait on in-person interviews and any offers, at least until the okay is given to have non-employees, and in some cases their own employees, back in their facilities. At that point, the plan is to pick things up again as the economy rebounds, hoping they are ahead of the game. That is of course assuming another organization hasn’t already beat them to the punch as they waited for business to return to normal.
Some of our clients have taken a more proactive approach and continued to interview and hire, almost without missing a beat. Their thinking is that the top, hard to find candidates may be more open to making a change right now, especially if their current employer has or will be implementing lay-offs or furloughs. While some A-Level people have certainly become the victims of downsizings during these times, that won’t last long and the ‘Talent War’ will be back in full swing. With that in mind, they have adjusted the typical hiring process to include video interviews in lieu of onsite meetings. This strategy has resulted in them landing top talent for critical roles while other companies have remained on the sidelines.
Obviously, there are a lot of factors that go into which strategy organizations are choosing. For instance, some industries have been more severely disrupted than others and have been faced with massive lay-offs, so they really haven’t had much of a choice other than to enact hiring freezes. Regardless of your strategy, The Angus Group is here to help. With our proven process and discipline specific practices leaders across Accounting & Finance, Engineering & Technology, Executive Leadership, HR, Manufacturing Operations, Marketing & Sales, Non-Profit Leadership, and Supply Chain we can successfully recruit the people you need. Whether it is assisting in identifying, evaluating, attracting, and hiring skilled leaders and experienced professionals, or discussing your talent strategy as we continue to move forward in the economic recovery, we’re happy to help and provide further insight into current trends.