Recruiter contacts

How easy/difficult was it to adapt to home/remote working?

Although the severity of the situation at the outset of the crisis did come on with what seemed like surprising speed, we were perhaps thinking and planning around it earlier than most here in the UK.

Th e group’s international footprint proved its worth, as we have an extensive operation in Vietnam – so when the virus took hold in China, we began to take measures to bolster the Vietnamese business. Teams began to alternate between working in the offi ce and working from home, and we addressed network and hardware issues given that many of our staff do their work on desktops rather than laptops.

Th e experience in Vietnam meant that we were soon live planning for the rest of the business, too. Our IT team performed some amazing work, upgrading our network capacity where needed and migrating systems to the cloud that weren’t already hosted there. When lockdown began, we were ready in terms of systems and connectivity. Everyone began to work from home, and the transition felt relatively smooth. It has perhaps become more diffi cult as the pandemic has continued, as some people have begun to fl ag somewhat from the endless stream of video calls and online meetings – a common problem that all businesses are experiencing.

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What are your biggest challenges?

From the start of the crisis, I made it a priority that as a business we should be there for our people, clients and candidates – communicating, updating, supporting and being visible. People really kept in touch with their clients and candidates, and it wasn’t long before there were some brilliant social activities going on over Teams or Zoom as well – quizzes, exercise sessions, cookery classes and more. More formally, we entered into a partnership with Uhubs, providing content for our people, clients, contractors and staff , and running sessions on multiple diff erent topics from mental wellbeing to self-management. We also set up a website www.yourtomorrow.io which showcases some of the incredible and inspiring stories of people in the tech business who lost their position or contract due to the virus but then moved on and found a new role.”

THE GLOBAL RECRUITMENT CONSULTANCY

Bev White, CEO, Harvey Nash Group

How is technology helping you tackle these and what tech is proving most valuable?

We have extensively used Hinterview to conduct and record fi rst-stage interviews on behalf of our clients, as well as the more usual MS Teams and Zoom. We have also provided advice to our clients and candidates on how to ensure that virtual interviewing, from both sides of the screen, is as smooth and eff ective as possible.

How is technology helping you to preserve the human side of recruiting and what tips do you have for others?

We have recently used vTogether, a virtual platform for hosting internal meetings, and at the same time we have also worked hard to introduce a culture where anyone can simply ask ‘How are you?’. Th is is even more important in a virtual world, as meetings can often start and stop abruptly with little or no small talk about what is happening in our professional and personal lives. We are also implementing a new engagement platform called Hive HR, where everyone has the opportunity to feedback and tell us how they are feeling. Not only do we expect this to boost teamwork and engagement, but we would also hope that it works in parallel with our other initiatives to support the mental wellbeing of our staff .