Insights
Russell Reynolds Associates: 5 Key Considerations for Candidate Engagement in Today's Crisis
Great candidate engagement has always mattered – it can be the difference between getting a great candidate and losing one. The COVID-19 crisis is throwing up a multitude of new challenges. How organizations deal with them will be hugely important to keeping hiring processes moving and maintaining strong talent pipelines for once the crisis has passed.
Your candidates are likely dealing with a lot of change in their own jobs right now – helping coordinate response efforts, reviewing budgets and working through “what if” scenario planning (which will include questions about their own hiring plan). This will have a spillover effect on how they think about your job opportunity. They will naturally wonder how committed your company is to this hiring process.
Be sure to emphasize your commitment to making this hire and over what timeframe. Reiterate how this role connects to the long-term strategy of the firm. If relevant, highlight how the current crisis further clarifies the importance of this role or the skills and experience the candidate has.
Russell Reynolds Associates suggest implementing two tactics to help facilitate comfort with deploying offers in this scenario:
- Double down on video – make sure all interviews are video based and have interviewers that conducted phone calls previously “re-meet” the candidate over video.
- Do additional referencing checking in order to build confidence amongst the hiring team in their decision.