Recruiters. You CAN make placements in lockdown!

In most cases, recruiters, clients and candidates are all at home right now.

And no one knows when that will change.

How on earth do we engineer a permanent placement in that situation?

Job spec. Interview. Second interview. Offer. Acceptance. Start date. Handover.

I am not going to tell you it’s easy.

But it can be done.

And it was last week, by Consult Recruitment Talent Advisor Greta Knight in Auckland, New Zealand.

You need a co-operative client. You need a willing candidate.

But you also need an innovative recruiter prepared to influence the process and create the outcome.

Here is what happened.

• New Zealand went into full compulsory lockdown at 11.59 pm on Wednesday, 25th March. Everyone was at home the next day. No meetings of any kind.
• Greta was already working from home the week before lockdown, because she had a cold.
• While she was at home, (that week before mandatory isolation), she did candidate interviews for the role of Corporate Accountant with a large (international) well-known and respected consumer brand, via FaceTime. She had shortlisted three good candidates by the Thursday, all done from home.
• On Friday, she set up a phone meeting with her client and talked through the shortlisted candidates. The client decided to see two of the three shortlisted candidates.
• One of the candidates ended up declining the interview because he got nervous about what was happening in the market with the virus situation and decided to stay put.
• Greta teed up the interview for the other candidate for the following Monday. The candidate then went to a wedding in Sydney for the weekend, arriving back in New Zealand 30 minutes before the mandatory 14-day self-isolation deadline for people coming from overseas! He decided to self-isolate to be on the safe side, and Greta’s client preferred for him to do so as well.
• So now we are in the mandatory lockdown period (although all actions to date had been remote anyway), and Greta’s candidate went ahead with the interview on Monday via Skype. He did well and was offered a second interview, also via Skype, on Wednesday.
• After the second ‘meeting’ Greta was asked to take references, and based on a great response, a verbal offer was extended to her candidate on Thursday, followed up by a written offer on Friday.
• Greta had worked with her client to set up a log-in for her candidate and allocate him a laptop in anticipation of a handover under lockdown. The candidate negotiated an early release from his current employer to finish up next week. The incumbent for this role (who was moving to a new position) pushed back her new job start-date a week (due to the lockdown) enabling an extra week of handover with Greta’s candidate.
• The initial agreed start date was set as 4 weeks for the date of acceptance, ‘or earlier by mutual agreement’. It has since been confirmed that the start date is to be brought forward 10 days.
• The client was magnificent in terms of flexibility and keeping the process moving ( but Greta oiled that wheel, I can assure you) and the candidate took it in his stride (with Greta smoothing over any concerns as they arose). He wanted the job, and he was looking beyond COVID 19, which was brave. This will be his first role out of Chartered Accounting practice, so this is a critical move for him. The way he handled the ever-changing scenario impressed Greta and her client. Both agreed he would go a long way with his adaptable approach.

So there it is. The client and candidate have never met in real life. Greta never left her home office through the process (OK, maybe to go to the fridge!). The candidate may well start on his first day in his new job, at home!

And there is a tasty little cherry on the top of this most encouraging COVID-19 recruitment story. I got a follow-up email from Greta today. I am going to quote her verbatim. It is two sentences for our time.

“What is even better is that’s we invoiced the client on 30th March with terms to pay 20th of the following month, but they paid within the first week! I love clients like that!

It will be a recruitment experience I will always remember, and I think it created quite a bond with the candidate and client.”

I am inspired!

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#StayStrong. #BeKind. #ThisTooWillPass

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