Hiring New Leaders during the Corona Crisis - Risk or Opportunity?

1. Life goes on. Even if the coronavirus slowed economic growth in 2020, an upturn is forecast for 2021. For this reason, it is clever to get talent on board now. They will give you a noticeable competitive advantage when the economy starts up again and - depending on the respective position - can unleash growth forces in the company.
2. Many larger companies currently have a hiring stop. This gives employers who have the courage in this phase to take on new talent and can guarantee a professional remote hiring process, a considerable advantage. They can develop a strong employer brand and employer branding strategy to stand out in the war for talents and inspire top talents to join them. In normal times, large, well-known companies usually get these candidates immediately.
3. Crises get people thinking. Workers especially want stability now. Many are disappointed with their employers and would have liked more transparency and flexibility during the lockdown. They question whether they are really happy in their jobs and whether they find meaning in their work. This is an opportunity to score points as an employer.

In these economically challenging times, many companies have to concentrate on their core businesses. If there is an internal HR department, colleagues are busy with many additional tasks, e.g. the processing of short-time work, the organization of flexible working time models, and (hopefully) with ensuring the satisfaction of the employees.

Handing over external recruiting to a specialist relaxes the pressures on internal resources and, above all, gives you access to candidate networks and decades of expertise. Recruiters are in constant contact with interesting candidates and know about their wishes and ideas.

Hiring good employees always pays off in the long term is a decisive factor in making you a successful market or innovation leader.

1. The most important thing: Maintain career and employer pages regularly and clearly communicate open positions. Many potential candidates currently suspect that they don't even need to apply because companies have better things to do than recruit. Often people are not aware that this does not apply to all industries and companies.
2. Attractive, future-oriented employers convey security. This also includes a quick, uncomplicated and appreciative recruiting process.
   
3. Communication with candidates must be open and honest.
   
   
4. The company's USP should be clearly presented. Your company might make a valuable contribution to society - in software development for security-critical companies, in app development to help people face new everyday lives and so that other companies have an intact IT infrastructure. As a candidate, you would like to be part of that.
   
   
5. More attractive working time models are needed: In the autumn, employees with children will be faced with the situation more often that children are in home schooling. This means that parents will need flexible home office options. We often hear that many employees are even more productive and focused in their home offices than in an open-plan office.
   
   
6. Employer branding is always important. Even more important is that it is authentic. You don't need to google for long to find survey results from kununu, Xing and Co., which show how far dream and reality sometimes diverge. How a company treats its employees during a crisis says everything about the corporate culture - and these reviews are visible online forever.