It can be tempting to let recruiting take a back seat, as each day presents new challenges for organizations. The path forward is not always clear amid widespread confusion, layoffs, furloughs, and closures.

Yet experienced recruiters are recognizing that it is now time to start preparing for the post-COVID rehabilitation. When you're ready to start recruiting again, do you have a schedule and any tactics in place to press go? If not, until the economy begins to recuperate, there will be a scramble for talent. If your rivals are quicker to market, your company would fail to fill vital positions.

1. Talent shortages

Determine the skill and talent sets that you might have lost or acquired. There have been hard hits across all sectors and, in others, massive growth. During this time, online retailers like Amazon have recruited 185,000 + employees.

In the US, the unemployment rate was 14.7 percent in April, the highest it has been since World War II. This means that the market has more talent than ever before. As jobs return and competition for this talent is strong, it also means time-to-hire will remain crucial.

The talent you've lost is likely to be the same as the talent your rivals have lost. Have you considered the type of talent needed to help succeed post-COVID-19 in your business? For instance, if you have switched to online ordering and warehouse delivery, the abilities, expertise , and experience you once needed when recruiting retail workers might not be appropriate.

2. Align recruiting strategies

The first step is to re-evaluate your current plan, whether or not you are ready to employ, to develop an effective recruiting strategy. What are the priorities and plans for organization? Aligning the recruiting practices with the company's priorities is important. Where does the company want to be in 6 to 12 months ' time, commercially?

If the answer to this question is unknown to you, now is the time to make sure you're part of the discussion. To understand the skills , attitudes, and expertise required in the future, particularly when reimagining or changing the types of positions the company needs, have frank and frank conversations with business leaders and hiring managers.

3. Engage in and cultivate furloughed employees

There are also many things you can do to plan for potential hires if you're in a holding pattern and not recruiting right now. You have to keep reservoirs of talent warm and, in particular, cultivate furloughed staff and alumni. There are important individuals who are pre-vetted and already aligned with the ethos and values of the company. Holding this talent at hand before you're ready to recruit again would make it quicker and easier to fill critical ability gaps. Only because your rival got to them first, you don't want to lose important individuals.

4. Lean on technology for remote hiring

All the above techniques, of course, are high-touch in their implementation. Talent teams alone, if they rely on manual processes, can not manage the workload or gain valuable insights.

Technology will streamline communication, track and evaluate the success of these techniques and provide every candidate with a great experience.

In a remote environment with minimal in-person contacts, applicant tracking systems (ATS), screening and onboarding technology solutions are becoming much more relevant. If you are not adopting HR tech solutions yet, remote work has intensified the need for HR tech and pressured laggards to embrace tech solutions, you are behind the competition. When they are able to scale-up recruiting again, the organizations that are perfecting remote interviewing, training, and onboarding now, will be well positioned to attract the best talent. Many that aren't would fail within six months to find the talent they need.

Conclusion

We would all have to return to work at some stage in the near future. You need to make sure you are still well trained to cope with all the changes triggered by the pandemic when it happens. Make sure you obtain the full amount of details needed to understand the process of moving your workers back to the office.