What If My Employees Don't Want to Come Back?

Despite the uncertainty of the current landscape, you’re feeling cautiously optimistic about bringing your employees back to work for business operations. States are gradually getting back to business, the economy seems to be returning to some sense of normalcy, even New York City has entered its first phase of reopening.

But you’re discovering that many of your employees don’t want to come back, and you’re finding yourself in the unfortunate situation of starting from scratch to hire new ones. Unexpectedly, you now need to repopulate your workforce.  That means posting jobs, finding new qualified candidates, and going through the entire recruitment and hiring process. Here are some useful tips.

First, speed matters. While some aren’t ready to return to work, there’s a vast population of talented but currently unemployed candidates prepared to re-enter the workforce, and they’re taking the first job offers that meet their needs. You need to get to them first. There’s evidence Amazon has streamlined their recruiting process so much that they’re beating out other companies for candidates, sheerly because those companies are less efficient with hiring. Over time, Amazon has reduced their hiring time significantly, and for certain positions, the time can be as little as a few days from initial application to start date. Though Amazon’s model may not exactly work for your business, they are setting the standard for how hiring efforts must evolve to meet market demands.

Speed in this digital age requires automation and AI-driven technology for a streamlined application and screening process, and making these and other tools like scheduling and virtual hiring seamlessly integrate requires an innovative tech stack.

At Source2, we’re constantly evaluating new platforms in the technology space to keep our tech stack optimized, and our Text-to-Apply initiative is one of our most significantly utilized tools. This directly corresponds with our findings and supporting research in the modern job search:

• 72% of candidates use a mobile device for their job search
• 90% of candidates prefer a text over a phone call or email
• 82% of candidates prefer a mix of innovative technology and human interaction

Through a personalized AI automation, qualified candidates can apply for a job and schedule an interview by responding to a few easy questions via text. If you’re curious how this technology works, you can use it to quickly connect with us by texting “Source2” to 25000.

Taking a step back, another important piece in repopulating your work force is understanding why employees chose not to return. We previously covered some potential reasons and implications in our recent COVID-Era hiring blog, and we also surveyed our own employees for their feedback. If the reason was safety concerns, like it was for many of our employees, prospective candidates may have similar fears, so your brand messaging and recruitment marketing will need to reflect how you’re helping to alleviate those safety concerns. These channels are also especially important for active recruiting to reach a larger audience of both passive and active candidates.

When you’re recruiting new candidates, your company reputation and reviews also play a significant role. According to a recent study from social recruiting firm CareerArc, more than 90 percent of candidates seek out at least one resource to evaluate an employer’s brand before applying for a job. 80-90 percent of employer reviews live on Indeed and Glassdoor, so the fastest track to ensure your brand is positively represented online is to update and optimize your company pages on both sites, along with utilizing surveys from current employees to quickly improve review scores.

Your ability to retain your existing employees and solicit their feedback are valuable assets when it comes to hiring new talent, and periodic surveys and review management on Indeed and Glassdoor are prime utilizations of their feedback. We’ll cover the iterative recruitment and retention optimization process in more detail in an upcoming article, but for more information now, take a look at our Retention Solutions and connect with us through our Contact Us form.