Hiring fast, amid a fast-growing health crisis

The U.S. is rapidly expanding its response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak—and some organizations are rapidly opening roles as a result. New job postings related to the coronavirus increased 3x in one week on Glassdoor, roughly a third of which came from health care, biotech, pharmaceuticals, government, and nonprofits. Another third were posted by staffing agencies, which are frequently called on to fill critical roles in a crunch and are likely working on outbreak-related roles.

The pressure is on to quickly recruit highly qualified health care workers, communications and community pros, and even technical talent. If you’re feeling that pressure, we have a few tips we hope will help.

Take care of yourself

It’s a high-stress time. You may also be newly working from home, which can add another layer of weirdness. You can’t do your best unless you’re at your best, so let your first priority be your physical, mental, and emotional health. Get plenty of sleep. Drink lots of water. Step away from it all when you need to.

Write outstanding job descriptions

Yes you need to move fast, but taking the time to craft a strong job post that draws in the right people will save you time in the long run. Do your fact checking and spell checking, give it a glance for any formatting issues—but also try reading it through out loud. Or get a colleague to take a look. Does it sound how you want it to sound?

You want to reach the broadest pool of qualified candidates you can, and these particular candidates have even more choices than usual at the moment. Be sure you’re engaging them with intentional, inclusive language. Remove jargon and references that are only familiar to some; eliminate problematic gendered language that excludes. Help candidates see themselves in your workplace.

Be mindful in your candidate outreach

Similarly, take extra care in writing your recruiting mails and messages. You’re probably one of several people reaching out right now, so it’s worth it to try to choose language that will be impactful and influential. Put on your content writer’s hat as you craft your communications. If you didn’t touch on them in the job post, or even if you did, now could be a great time to emphasize your cultural values. Whatever you do, avoid these faux pas.

Run a recruitment marketing campaign

Wait—don’t freak out at “campaign.” You can definitely do this quickly, just keep it simple. It’s mostly about coordinating your efforts, so that each message and activity works together to improve your hiring outcomes. Here's a straightforward, five-step framework you can reference—even if you don’t build a campaign, it’ll help you be more strategic overall.

It was already a tight talent market, and now for many recruiting teams, things are even tougher. The above tactics will help you quickly and efficiently attract diverse talent pools with the critical skills businesses and communities need right now. Especially that first tip on the list—please do take care of yourself.