5 Strategies Smart Companies Should Employ During A Hiring Freeze

The COVID-19 emergency has thrown the global economy into a time of marked uncertainty.

As organisations enter crisis mode, most will be looking to downsize staff in an effort to reduce costs. While this measure is likely temporary, it raises a number of immediate and important questions for talent acquisition professionals.

Believe it or not, COVID-19 may actually be a golden opportunity for your company to strengthen its employer brand and lean into adversity to create compelling employee-driven content.

In fact, some of the smartest companies in the world have already started to use this time effectively.

From designing a robust employer brand to building a purpose-led EVP to seizing the opportunity to better understand your employees and candidates, there are a number of impactful strategies that your company can employ during a hiring freeze.

If you’re looking to maximize your time during the COVID-19 crisis, then these simple and effective strategies will help you turn a negative situation into a positive, so you can stimulate ideas and rejuvenate your talent function.

1.     Conduct employer brand research and planning

Asking, listening and documenting usually isn’t enough to get to the truth of what your employees really think about your company. Discovering the truth requires asking insightful questions, then listening to answers, followed by empathetic dialogue to discover their real point of view.

During a hiring freeze, one of your first priorities should be to facilitate a greater understanding of your employees – What motivates them to get up in the morning? What stories of adversity do individuals overcome in order to help your organization succeed?

You can group employer brand research into four categories:

·        The business strategy

·        Leadership view of the company (aspirations)

·        Employee view of the company (current reality)

·        Market view

Each of these allows you to look beyond the ‘what’ and arrive at the ‘why’, so you can take these learnings and build a truly authentic and well-grounded employer brand.

2.     Persona and empathy map your talent audiences

A persona is an archetypal representation of each talent audience segment. The insights you gather using persona and empathy mapping can provide you with the opportunity to create an infinitely more meaningful brand experience for your internal and external talent audience.

This strategy allows you to hit all the right notes, communicate the most relevant priorities to each audience segment and ultimately create more affinity with top talent.

• When conducting persona and empathy mapping, always seek to understand the following critical insights:
• What is the persona looking for? This is what the persona needs to possess to thrive.
• What are their priority motivators and drivers? This explains the persona’s primary characteristics.
• What is their priority aspect of belonging, impact and purpose? To determine this, tap into the realities of your employee experience and seek to understand your talent’s capabilities, values, beliefs and behaviors.

3.     Develop persona stories for deeper engagement and attraction

Once you have conducted a number of persona and empathy mapping sessions for a variety of unique talent audiences, you can then take these insights and develop compelling stories that speak to each employee or candidate on a personal level.

It makes sense, right?

To create meaningful “Give and Get” messaging for a persona, you must have a true understanding of what they want and need so you can balance it with a true reflection of what it takes to achieve what they’re searching for.

In this sense, Give and Get refers to a value exchange – what is possible at your organization if someone is willing to overcome the necessary challenges and adversity? This approach creates stories that are full of meaning, and deliver on a candidate’s desire for impact, purpose and belonging.

4.     Review or develop an employee culture book

Now is a great time to either revisit or craft an employee culture book. But this isn’t just a shiny collection of all the great reasons why people should be happy to work at your organization.

The best employer brands are refreshingly honest, simple and clear. Your culture should be an accurate reflection of employees’ tolerance for the situations, demands and expectations of your company.

When employees are challenged and engaged by the adversity within your organization, these moments literally define your unique culture. Embrace the harsh realities and you’ll be able to capture a truly accurate representation of your company culture – the good and the bad.

5.     Optimize your careers website for SEO

Many organizations have failed to realize the significance of Search Engine Optimization, or SEO. If you’re in the world of talent attraction, SEO plays a massive role in your company’s ability to reach and engage with candidates.

Think about it… what’s the biggest job board in the entire world?

Google!

The context and intent of a candidate’s enquiry is key, so make sure your website experience is designed to keep Google happy. This includes key SEO factors such as speed and performance, increasing dwell time on site, optimizing job detail pages using keywords and creating fresh, relevant and engaging content.

To find out more about how you can turn crisis into opportunity, my new book, ‘Give & Get Employer Branding’, is available now on Amazon and at all major book retailers.