Transparent communication and simply doing the right thing were our keys to successfully navigating recruitment and hiring during a global pandemic. We immediately updated our trusted university partners on the state of our business and instilled faith that Enterprise Holdings would endure the challenges of a global pandemic. We stayed in contact with potential candidates – even referring them to other organizations actively hiring while we were not – and found ways to make our processes and recruiting impactful in a virtual environment. As the business rebounded, we reengaged our university partners and our candidates to promote opportunities to bring this incredible talent into our evolving and innovative business.
Marie Artim
Vice President of Talent Acquisition
Enterprise Holdings
Thanks to our ongoing strategic investments in digital recruiting capabilities, we easily adjusted to a virtual hiring program last year,” said Bruce Soltys, Head of Talent Sourcing at Travelers Insurance. “Those investments, combined with the option for candidates to work remotely in the near term, helped us further expand and diversify our hiring efforts while maintaining our momentum in recruiting top talent from schools across the country.
Bruce Soltys
Vice President, Talent Acquisition
Travelers
Carahsoft is a company that recruits for the future. It is in our nature to constantly evolve our practices towards providing candidates with the best experience possible. Given the market's uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we have remained vigilant in ensuring that we recruit with a level of empathy for the situation most entry-level candidates are experiencing. We strive to maintain consistent communication and keep our company objectives a priority.
The pandemic demonstrated the stability of Carahsoft and what we offer as a company. Recruiting during the height of Covid showed the challenges people were facing in the career market. With real-time hiring and the smooth transition to remote, the recruiting team brought opportunity awareness to our candidates in a time of uncertainty. We utilized the same technology we offer to the government agencies throughout our hiring process. This allowed us to still keep the personal aspect of our company, maintain our company's culture, and adapt rapidly to new challenges.
We are incredibly proud of how Carahsoft has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Our recruiting team has streamlined to an entirely virtual recruiting and onboarding process while our company continues to work in a safe remote capacity. We have rallied together to ensure that all new hires receive the same effective and efficient virtual training experience when they begin their careers at Carahsoft. Despite adversity, Carahsoft continued to scale in size in 2020 with an impressive addition of over 650 new employees.
Kathy Kelly
Vice President, Recruitment
Carahsoft Technology Corp.
Like most companies, Arcadis has had to adapt to rapidly changing working conditions as a result of the pandemic. We have made concerted efforts to support a remote workforce, which is particularly challenging when you are talking about interns and entry level candidates who, in many cases, have little or no prior work experience. The challenge is to ramp them up in a virtual environment, and train our managers on how to manage entry level staff remotely. We have become more active in our online engagement efforts, and participated in over 40 virtual career fairs during the past 8 months. Engaging and maintaining relationships with those students has presented a unique challenge, but my team has seen it as an opportunity to redirect our efforts and position ourselves as an employer of choice. We have been developing a virtual tool that will allow students to obtain information about Arcadis, which we hope to roll out in the next month. We have also reengineered our recruitment process by providing more engagement points for the candidates – so even though we don’t get to meet them in person, I believe we have built strong relationships with them through our virtual efforts. As a result, we converted more interns to full time roles in 2020 (proportionally) than we ever had previously, and our applications and pipelining of candidates is up (year over year) since the pandemic.
Adam Gersh
University Relations
Arcadis
How have the challenges of recruiting in the midst of a pandemic affected your organization?
We learned to think on our feet, that's for sure! Our College Relationship Development team had to shift from on-campus recruiting to hosting events virtually - everything from career fairs to mock interviews to resume review sessions. This spring alone, we have over 100 virtual events planned which would not have been possible without collaboration and overcommunication between our Talent Acquisition Team and our Marketing Team. In terms of our Internal Recruiting efforts, we were faced with talking to countless students who really felt lost at the time. Some had lost internships due to the pandemic and some were hesitant about accepting internships/full-time jobs due to the unknown, so we were tasked with 1) reassuring students that there would be a light at the end of the tunnel and 2) 'selling' ALKU in a completely virtual environment.
What adjustments have you made to find and reach entry level candidates?
Talent Acquisition has gone virtual! Prior to the pandemic, all of our on-campus recruiting events were done in-person. We'd travel from school to school, speaking with different sales classes and bringing students ALKU swag to rock on their college campus. Now, our College Relationship Specialists have learned to bring that same energy and excitement via Zoom and other online communication platforms. We are continuing to mail swag to 'Event Stand-Outs' and our Marketing Team has created an 'online' ALKU booth for Abby and Hailee to use as their Zoom background when hosting events to make it more fun for students! Internal Recruiters, with the help of our Talent Acquisition Coordinator, now schedule all interviews (we've had up to 20 in one day during the pandemic!) virtually via Zoom. Prior to the pandemic, we did not conduct video interviews but, regardless of the quick turnaround time, we've become pros at interviewing candidates virtually!
How are entry level candidates adapting to changes in the hiring environment? How have colleges responded?
Entry-Level candidates are more grateful, now than ever before, to be receiving a phone call from an employer. With there being so much unknown right now, candidates are fearful that they will not be graduating college having already accepted a full-time offer. Interviewing virtually has become the 'norm' for these students, so they seem to have adapted quickly. Colleges have done a great job, too! In the same light, career centers, professors, etc. are just so grateful to have employer partners who are willing to adapt and do what it takes to give their students' the same experience that they'd be receiving in-person. Career centers, specifically, seem to have become more open-minded in terms of the types of events we are offering to students. Information sessions, sales role plays, or ALKU-specific presentations - you name it, career center personnel are willing to give it a shot if it means more opportunity for their students!
What is the bright side to the changes you have had to make over the past year?
On the bright side, we are now fully confident that we can run with whatever it is that's thrown our way in the future. We have adapted to this virtual environment so quickly and seamlessly, that we'll now be able to expand our reach to colleges that we may have not recruited from previously due to location. We have created a Virtual Training Center to allow interns to work fully remote during the pandemic - full-time during the summer and winter, and part-time during the fall and spring semesters. With nearly 60 full-time new hires waiting in the wings to start post-grad, we are ready to take on 2021 with open arms!
Delaney Bradley
Internal Recruiting Manager
ALKU
What is the bright side to the changes you have had to make over the past year?
There has been an abundance of reflection, innovation, and growth when looking back on the past year. Not only has this time given us the chance to put a lot into perspective and take a step back to cherish good health, family, and the mental wellness of ourselves and our employees but to also appreciate the job security we have here. This pandemic has also opened up a lot of doors to meet candidates virtually across the country residing at a variety of universities that we would not typically get to visit. It has been encouraging to see how well students have responded to the pandemic, and have taken that resilience with them to Kearney Company. Seeing both Interns and Full-Time hires still thrive in the virtual environment and adapt to the current normal has confirmed our confidence in hiring wonderful candidates. Seeing Kearney Company respond so well to this pandemic, with a people first mentality as we always do, was very reassuring to see being an employee here. We are proud to share this success story in our personal and professional life.
Makenzie Shearson, Senior College Recruiter
Abbey Shepard, College Recruiting Coordinator
Kearney & Company
How are entry level candidates adapting to changes in the hiring environment? How have colleges responded?
The class of 2020 entered a non-existent jobs market at the height of the pandemic and financial recession, and had to pivot their expectations quickly, from desired salary to the position or industry. For instance, according to our research, more than any other year, college graduates have been more open to contract positions to get their foot in the door at an organization. They also had to acclimate themselves to virtual interviewing, however, their pre-existing familiarity with technology and participating in e-learning through their colleges played in their favor. Colleges are partnering with even more external sources, whether it’s having guest speakers join virtual classrooms, hosting webinars, or offering career coaching sessions to help students be best equipped entering a stressed jobs market. We have seen an economic recovery begin in recent months and companies are hiring, including LaSalle Network.
Jessica Schaeffer
Vice President
LaSalle Network
How have the challenges of recruiting in the midst of a pandemic affected your organization?
In response to an increased demand for pet care products, we have continued to hire in volume throughout the entire duration of the pandemic. Our organization has been quick to support an entirely virtual recruitment model to keep the safety of our current and future associate top of mind throughout the recruitment process.
What adjustments have you made to find and reach entry level candidates?
We know that great talent comes from everywhere, as such our college recruitment model has always relied heavily on reaching and engaging students virtually. New in 2020, we had the opportunity to offer virtual internships. This allowed us to further our commitment to providing the future workforce with career-readiness opportunities. This is a key priority in our global career acceleration initiative Project Opportunity.
Justine Cantwell
Employment Brand Specialist, Talent Sourcing
Nestlé Purina PetCare