Hiring Right in the midst of Crisis

You may be surprised to read about hiring in the midst of the pandemic when the more common narrative that we hear of is that of jobs being lost, skills becoming redundant and teams being downsized. While the latter is true, the job market and talent mobility has undergone a massive transformation in the last 12-18 months. Organizations are on the look out for the right leaders and talents that are transformative, capable and agile – both from within their organizations and from outside. So if you are a hiring manager or are looking at expanding your vertical in the present times, there are some practices you can keep in mind to ensure you are hiring with empathy, inclusion and purpose.

1. What are you looking at bringing on board:  It is essential that you have a strategic clarity of where the new role fits in to the business. Is there a need for bringing in new talent to fill a gap of a person who has ‘emptied’ the function or is there a need for a new talent to add value to your vertical?
2. How do competencies balance off experience:  Since the skills needed are so emergent and challenges so new, you may not be able to find the right people if you look for those who have the ‘experience’ of doing this. Instead you would need to craft your competency model to see what are the kinds of mindsets, life experiences and readiness that will make it possible to get the work done.
3. Expand your notion of culture:  With offices becoming remote, organizational culture and the parameters of these as we knew have evolved. Redefining company culture as it translates in personal ethos, professionalism and commitment would need to be put down in both objective and subjective manners to be able to spot the right match.
4. Diversity and inclusiveness in hiring practices:  Expand your search pool by looking for talent in places you hadn’t looked before. Could it be people who have had unconventional education or come from different life experiences or ground level understanding of processes that can add great insight and value in the present times? Go beyond asking questions like how they would balance home or where their personal commitments lie – these have become null and void in today’s times. Instead ask, what drives them to work, what makes it possible for them to deliver on their commitments – both at home and at work.
5. Give a complete picture of where you stand:  You owe it to talents to let them come in with awareness and clarity. Everyone is aware of the volatility of business environment and an interview situation is also a time to test waters by both the parties. However, what you lead them on with is important to understand that hiring practices impact not just filling up of positions but have long term impacts on – company’s brand presence, retention of staff and building of company culture.