Talent Acquisition COVID 19

SOURCE AND SCREEN

While some organizations have instituted hiring freezes during the pandemic, many TA functions are
still operating, but under unique circumstances. For organizations in healthcare, life sciences or other
related fields, for example, staffing needs are even more critical right now. Use virtual technology as
much as possible to evaluate job candidates. Continue to focus on a positive hiring manager and
candidate experience – but remove or limit close contact.

Career Sites:
Your company’s career site is a common place for candidates to visit during their application and hiring
process. Add language to it to let candidates know what your company is doing in response to COVID-
19. This might include an increase in virtual interviews or new procedures for onsite office visits and
cleaning.

In addition, add screening questions prior to an onsite interview to learn if candidates coming to your
location have travelled to an impacted area in the last 30 days. Adding this to your career site will give
candidates comfort that you are being thoughtful about their safety. Candidates will gain confidence
through your transparency and information.

Technology-enabled Assessments:
While tech-enabled assessment methods can lead to greater efficiency, these options are especially
appealing for TA during a pandemic. To help flatten the curve, you should take every step possible to
reduce instances of candidates visiting offices or locations in person. Chatbots or other assessment
tech can help make this possible. In addition, you might be able to add assessment questions to your
applicant tracking systems and avoid signing new agreements or long-term contracts for additional
functionality.

Virtual Open Houses / Career Fairs:

Rather than conducting a typical, in-person job fair, consider a virtual open house. These online
systems leverage technology to connect your recruiters with candidates virtually. They can also
provide an important channel for connecting candidates with your employees. By utilizing the chat
function in many of these online tools, you can give candidates access to people in-role, sharing what
your culture or the job specifically is like day to day. It adds an important level of human interaction to
keep candidates engaged.

Video Interviews:
Similar to assessments, interviews should avoid in-person interaction. If video interviewing technology
is not currently widely used across your business lines or sites, consider using technology that is both
mobile-friendly and web-based. Something easy and already widely accepted like FaceTime, is
becoming common place. Avoid using technology that requires users to download anything onto their
phone or computer. Provide candidates with video interview tips as part of their interview packet to
ensure they are comfortable with how the process will unfold. Do the same with hiring managers who
may not be comfortable with or accustomed to video interviewing. If you expect hiring managers to
make hiring decisions based on a video interview, ensure you set these expectations clearly and
provide interview or competency guides to give them confidence in decision making.

In-person Interviews:
If face-to-face interviews are critical for evaluating candidates for a position, take steps to prevent the
spread of germs. Medical professionals suggest remaining six feet away from other people. Have the
interview room set up to comply with this guideline. The interview room itself should be positioned by
an entrance or exit to minimize exposure to the office/site and additional people. Also, provide hand
sanitizer for both the interviewer and candidate, and disinfect objects like chairs, tables and door
handles between interviewees. Make candidates aware that they do not need to practice social norms
like shaking hands.
SELECTION OFFER AND CLEARANCE
Create a fair, consistent experience for candidates during the recruitment process. Don’t let some
candidates gain a perceived advantage by their ability to attend an in-person interview if other
candidates are self-quarantining for their own health or that of their family.

Background Checks:
Thoroughly vetting candidates is critical but consider what is absolutely necessary to have completed
before that new employee starts. Explore options for completing elements of the background check
digitally, without the need for the candidate to come into your office or that of a third-party company.
For hiring that is critical to the effort to eradicate the virus, like distributing medical supplies or food, be
prepared to abbreviate your requirements for certain positions to what is absolutely required for the
position and work with your background vendor to adjust the requirements, if needed.

Drug Screens:
Currently, tests for COVID-19 are being administered by health professionals from hospitals and health
systems, not by drug-screen vendors. Verify with your own drug-screen vendor, but most often these
labs are not the same locations where potential COVID-19 patients are going. Communicate clearly
with your candidates, so they are not concerned about completing their required tests and include this
information in onboarding material.

ONBOARDING
While aspects of the assessment and selection phases lend themselves to virtual solutions somewhat
easily, onboarding a new hire in their first weeks can be a bit of a challenge. Your first step should be
to make sure that you know what exactly is needed from a legal standpoint before an employee is
allowed to start working for your company. Then you can evaluate which aspects can be completed
virtually.

Compliance:
New hires can complete important forms and documents remotely, either via email or web-based
platforms. Consult your legal team or outside counsel to understand what steps needed for a new hire
can be done virtually vs. in-person to remain compliant with government regulations. For documents
that need to be witnessed in person, such as an I-9, you have some options. One is to have a family
member of the new hire act as a witness. Another is to use a video call to take photos of the
identification “in-person.” If the candidate must come to the office, provide sanitized wipes to wipe the
identification card off before and after it is provided.

Start Dates:
Review start dates for new employees to decide when it makes sense for them to begin employment.
Consider plans for starting new employees at different times or dates, to avoid having a large group
together for orientation. If you are going to delay start dates for any candidate that has accepted an
offer, consult with your leadership to understand any flexibility in payroll to do your best to support your
new employee. If your organization has a work from home policy, craft a plan for what the employee
needs to get up and running. Consider holding your new employee orientation via a platform like
Teams, Zoom or Skype to share both video and presentations.

Provisioning:
Work with your IT and other related teams to ensure they ship welcome materials and any technology
that employees need to do their job to the new hire’s home before their start date -- confirm the facility
you ship from practices safe standards.

Training:
For employees starting remotely, try to use the same video technology platform you used for the
interview process, which will help with the ease of use and overall comfort level with the technology.
This technology can enable individual training sessions or discussion beyond any pre-created content
from your Learning & Development team. If any in-person training is absolutely necessary, limit it to 1-
on-1 training, and maintain the suggested social distancing and sanitary precautions.

New Hire Engagement:

Considering the unique circumstances, take extra care to welcome and engage new hires. Work with
the hiring managers to create a plan to help build the relationship virtually between the manager and
other team members to help the new employee feel valued and supported from day one.