Creating engagement and connection during COVID-19 - 5 lessons I’ve learned from RCSA

A significant challenge for my business, as a result of COVID-19 restrictions has been maintaining connection and engagement, both internally and externally with our clients and candidates.  

Working from home every day is new for most of us. Communicating remotely, especially with colleagues, is a new challenge that, mostly, the team at Aspect have risen to. Sometimes we have not.  

An organisation that has set the benchmark in communication and engagement is the Recruitment Staffing & Consulting Association (RCSA) - Australia and New Zealand’s peak body for the recruitment and staffing industry. My business, Aspect, is one of the associations 1500+ staff, members and partners that form its immediate community.

Here are the lessons I’ve learned from watching their success in generating a connection and engagement with their stakeholders:

1.      Seek to understand what stakeholders need: as a member, I feel as though RCSA has purposefully tried to understand my business goals, the opportunities to be seized and the challenges that may lie in the way. I feel consulted. I feel heard. I feel like they genuinely care.

2.      Support to add value, not make money: relevant information, tools, templates, webinars, training offered has increased and all free of charge. If value is calculated as quality over cost and quality is increasing while cost is not, value is clearly going up.

3.      Communicate, communicate, communicate: one of my favourite sayings is “no one ever resigns because you share too much information with them”. This could not be more true in an environment filled with so much uncertainty. RCSA have been proactive in their communication on all issues facing our industry, readily available when contacted, and quick to respond to any inquiries. This has given me much-needed knowledge and therefore the confidence to look beyond the day ahead.

4.      Change the direction, not the destination: a highlight of my year is the RCSA international conference, as it offers the opportunity to join 300 industry peers for two days of learning and professional networking. Obviously, this year’s event needed to be cancelled. Instead of shelving it for 12 months, RCSA offered a digital conference – offering the 550 attendees the same learning and development opportunity, as well as the opportunity to connect and network online. Just because the route taken needed to be different, doesn’t mean you can’t get to the same destination.

5.      Stay true to your mission:  every organisation has a documented mission statement. The RCSA’s reads:

Everything that we do is in the pursuit of delivering a world class ‘Member Centric’ experience. We will lead and respond to our members through four principal channels and, by doing so, will compel the wider industry and next generation of professionals to fulfil our mission 

Everything RCSA has done in the past 12 weeks has a clear line of sight to this mission. The pursuit of this mission is what I signed up for eight years ago, and it continues to be the benefit I receive from my membership today, irrespective of the world we live in.

Revenue has fallen sharply across my business during the COVID-19 pandemic and we have reduced costs substantially in order to survive. Yet, when our RCSA membership renewal invoice landed in my inbox last week, I paid it in full, immediately and without hesitation.

Why? Because RCSA have stepped up, helped me to navigate the challenges of today and strengthened the connection I have with the organisation as well as the value I receive from them.

This is a good example of how even the darkest of clouds can have a silver lining, and that every challenge presents us with an opportunity to improve our organisations.

I hope and trust you are finding these opportunities as well.