Are You Ready for the Grand Reopening of the US Economy?

As we continue to deal with the effects of the pandemic, social distancing measures, and worker shortages, businesses have had a harder time finding employees and keeping them.

It's Hard to Find and Keep Employees

Due to massive hiring initiatives at the beginning of the pandemic, some of our large grocery sector clients experienced an almost 700% increase in the number of applicants they received compared to the weeks leading up to the mandated stay-home rules. Conversely, some of our other retail clients went in the other direction and had to lay off staff and close their brick-and-mortar locations. For businesses not hiring, our clients saw a 200% decrease in applications.

Now we are hearing from almost all businesses that they don't have enough applicants for both hourly and salaried positions. The workforce is in flux – have you changed your hiring strategies in response?

This pandemic has shown how essential the hourly workforce is - a fact that Cadient Talent has long recognized. With this at the forefront, companies need to develop talent acquisition strategies for life during and after Covid-19. The significant X factor is "when" the pandemic will end. No one can guess as we learn new details about the virus and its variants daily. While most would agree we want the pandemic to end ASAP, people and businesses are learning to adapt. Has your company been able to pivot to hire new employees fast, train them properly, and staff your stores adequately?

Strategies for Finding and Hiring Employees

Are you an HR Director overseeing recruiters and hiring managers in the retail, restaurant, or hotel industries? Is your plan to simply rehire the staff let go over the last year or two? If so, you may be blindsided by the fact that many of your former employees have taken jobs in other industries and may not want to come back.

On the flip side, millions of people will also be looking to work again. It may not seem like it – but they're out there! Your company needs strategies to deal with both scenarios.

Does your talent acquisition software have specialized features to help you quickly hire the best hourly employees? Are you using one of the "best-of-breed" solutions designed to hire hourly workers for evergreen jobs? Don't let open positions ruin your business. Your customers will notice if your business is understaffed. Update your hiring strategies and tech now. While organizations will formulate their plans differently, here are some actions that work for most businesses:

• Leverage your employees' networks to find candidates quickly with an employee referral program. Is your current plan automated, used by your employees, and efficient? Referrals are one of the best ways to recruit quickly and increase the retention of top talent.
• Keep the lines of communication open with laid-off employees. Update them frequently on the status of your industry, business, and hiring plans. Keeping in touch with former employees will increase the likelihood they'll come back to work for you when needed. One of the best ways to communicate with employees and prospects is through texting. It's easy and fast and reaches people where they are – their phones.
• Create a Recruitment Marketing plan. Decide how you will market open jobs and which channels you will use. Sourcing analytics will be a big help here. Make sure you have the resources available to hire swiftly and utilize your talent acquisition software to its fullest. This should include partnering with your client success manager to gain insight. 
• Develop other plans to quickly find and compete for top talent, such as hosting pop-up job fairs or offering signing bonuses. Don't let your competition grab the best candidates while you are stuck in the planning stage.
• Once you find candidates, help your hiring managers quickly identify the top candidates within their application piles. HR tech that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning takes the guesswork out of hiring. It gives recruiters and hiring managers a jump start in the hiring process.

Conclusion

The labor force will continue to see shortages. It's more important than ever to have a well-thought-out plan for finding, attracting, and hiring top talent. Whether you start an employee referral program, add a texting solution, or artificial intelligence to your hiring process, you'll be on your way to better hiring.