Getting Serious about Hiring

September is a serious month. Summer officially ends, kids go back to school and the last quarter looms. It’s time to nail those 2021 hiring objectives.

In this month’s newsletter, the biggest shifts in the business world post-pandemic, news of a great re-onboarding and this month’s must reads. Read on.

Tracking the biggest shifts in the business world post-pandemic

As we emerge from what’s been a zany year, to put it mildly, McKinsey analysts are starting to track the permanent changes that the pandemic wrought on the business world. Beyond remote work paradigms and the elusive concept of “hybrid work,” some definite markers have emerged, according to firms like McKinsey:

• Digital transformation, long the holy grail buzzword of business, sped way up, and many companies are now using tools fluently that were not even on the list a year ago.

• More than ever before, customer experience happens largely online, from ecommerce to digital banking transactions.

• A lot of businesses figured out how to get way more efficient, fast: with fewer workers and compromised operating models, they forced innovation under pressure.

As we enter a post-pandemic phase, the question on everyone’s minds is, “Will we go back to normal?” For the companies I work with at Johnson Recruiting Group, the hopeful answer is “No, it will be better.”

Read more

The great re-onboarding

So much hiring. Turnover. Lateral moves. Remote work. The return to the office. This has been a bonkers time for a lot of organizations and their leaders.

Given this, is it perhaps time to re-onboard everyone at your company? SHRM thinks so. Writer Liz Fosslien says: “In the data and in conversations, I've seen two forces that are destabilizing employees: unprecedented turnover and uncertainty.” She makes the case for a formal re-onboarding process for everyone as companies grapple with how to get back to “normal.” This might include things like:

• Holding kickoffs to (re)establish connection and camaraderie between team members

• Creating methods and channels for people to share knowledge and make contributions — Slack is a great platform for this sort of ongoing democratic sharing

• Establishing clear cultural expectations so both in-person and remote team members know exactly how to participate and contribute to the community

Read more

The post-pandemic rules of talent management

A sudden shift to remote work last year sent a lot of companies on a swift path to digital transformation. IT teams got busy, and even the biggest luddites on any team learned how to use Zoom effectively. For talent management, a lot has also shifted, such as:

• An emphasis on building culture outside the four walls of the office— As HBR puts it, “Culture doesn’t exist within walls; it exists within people, so you have to build culture through people, wherever they sit.”

• Work has to support life, not the other way around— For employers and leaders, this means enabling what workers need in order to be more effective, successful and happy, whether that’s remote work or a supported return to a safe office.

• Less of a focus on geography when sourcing talent— People don’t necessarily have to live where they work anymore. This is creating a lot of talent opportunities for companies, and a lot of career advancement opportunities for job seekers.

It’s a brave new world. But some things will never change — like the importance of effective talent sourcing. Read more

This Month’s Must-Reads

• How a recruiter helps hone in on the right candidates on Indeed

• The rising workplace emphasis on mental well-being on HR Dive
  

James

Johnson Recruiting Group