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equal opportunity employment journal
January 2021
How to Hire Safely in The Age of COVID-19
ith the outbreak of coronavirus sneaking into nearly every headline (this one included) and every conversation, humanity is realizing how much we’re drifting into uncharted waters…make that getting trapped in a powerful, inescapable current toward uncharted waters. We’re only beginning to understand the far-reaching implications while adjusting to the immediate effects. The stock market resurgence we’ve recently enjoyed has all but vanished. The normalcy of three weeks ago feels like a different lifetime as we watch not only national borders shutter for the foreseeable future, but also many of our neighborhood diners and coffee shops. And an entirely new term has entered our collective vocabulary: social distancing. If we do end up waiting 12 to 18 months for a vaccine, as some models have suggested, we may be looking at social distancing not only in the shape of sitting six feet away from others but also long-term fully remote workforces. Many have been dealing with the fear and uncertainty with humorous memes of introverts everywhere celebrating. But as we adjust to what could be our new normal, how are companies planning to move forward, and help maintain stability, for their workforces?
5 Tips to Hire Safely During the Coronavirus Outbreak
How Companies Have Adjusted Their Hiring Efforts During the Coronavirus Outbreak
LinkedIn has given candidates the option to either move forward with scheduled interviews virtually or postpone them until it’s once again possible to meet in person. But considering how we may need to adjust how we work not just for the next three weeks, but the next 18 months, it’s unlikely that companies can postpone all hiring efforts until it is safe to resume in-person interviews. In fact, a few of the U.S.’s leading companies have already adjusted their hiring processes. Amazon and Google, for example, have gone a step farther than LinkedIn. Rather than postponing their hiring efforts, they’ve moved nearly all in-person interviews to web-based ones.
We’ve looked at how forward-thinking companies, including a few of our clients, have adapted their hiring processes and paired it with our experience of virtually crowdsourcing hiring efforts to create a list of tips for hiring safely in the age of COVID-19.
1. U se a secure, centralized system for all hiringrelated tasks.
This way all parties, including current employees, vendors, and candidates, can use a webbased system without installing any software and putting your company at risk.
2. E xpand your use of webbased sourcing techniques.
Now is a great time to go beyond job boards and social media as your only virtual sourcing tools. Get ahead of the staffing challenges that may result from extended social distancing, including stay-at-home orders, by considering new, innovative sourcing and recruiting tools. Many have been designed to take place remotely, including Crowdstaffing’s cloud-based remote
