5 Things You Should Know About Hiring During Covid-19

Determining “compatibility” is harder than ever as on both ends, “wants” struggle to meet “reality”

The job interview is often compared to a first date: with nothing more than basic information about the person you’re meeting, you have lots of questions and you’re both eager (and a bit nervous) to know whether it’s a good fit. However, in a business environment shaken by a worldwide pandemic, determining “compatibility” is harder than ever as on both ends, “wants” struggle to meet “reality”.

For employers, the current economic crisis is a curious paradox where budgets are still low, yet potent talent may be closer than ever. With the U.S. having lost roughly 22 million jobs during the spring-summer of the Covid-19 pandemic, studies show that a rough 50% of those who’ve lost a job are still without one. This means today’s job market isn’t scarce of talent. But the question for many companies remains, “Should we hire during Covid-19?”. 
 

At MightyCall, our team has been expanding throughout 2020 and is planning to double in 2021. Despite the pandemic, in the past months, we’ve welcomed developers, QA engineers, and sales professionals to our team. Here’s what we learned throughout the hiring process, the principles that guide us, and how our experience can aid your hiring decisions.

1. Explore All the Benefits of Remote Work 

For a company that’s on a limited budget due to Covid but wishes to hire talent, remote work is a gold mine of opportunity. With a single part-time remote worker saving a business $11,000 in costs per year, you can accomplish the task of adding brainpower to your team while cutting back on costs.

If you have tasks for junior-level employees or are willing to invest time in mentorship, consider hiring interns or students. Young people are great with their capacity to catch information on the fly and willingness to learn new things. For other companies, going remote means attracting previously out-of-reach pros and field experts. If your company had no reason to hire a talented professional from out of state or across the country a year ago, consider tapping into the talent pool beyond your zip code. 

To additionally save on costs, managers should consider hiring per hour vs. per workday, outsourcing tasks to internationally-based freelancers or expats, and researching a greater variety of candidates and salary expectations than before. 

2. Live interviews Still Matter

You know the Asian proverb, “It’s better to see something once than to hear about it a thousand times”? With hiring, this is spot on. 

Covid-19 has modified a lot of habitual communication from live to virtual but a live interview will speak tons about the person and save you from disappointments later on. A live interview demonstrates decision-making skills, soft skills, and sets in motion the “chemistry” of team collaboration. All of that just doesn’t come across the same way through Zoom.

At MightyCall, we’ve been hosting interviews live whenever possible, while keeping strict social distancing and PPE guidelines and providing a safe environment for everyone. Although our team is currently operating remotely, the people we hire will be with us long-term. It’s always easier to double-check than fix mistakes, so we take care to personally meet everyone who is to become a member of our team.

If your company is unable to host one of the rounds of the interview live -- whether in the office, a co-working space, or even a cafe, invite a few existing team members to participate in a later round of the virtual interview. As I like to remind managers, you aren’t hiring someone you’ll love working with. You’re looking for a professional that embodies your team spirit and that your team will feel comfortable working with. How do you figure that out? Make your team’s voice count.

3. Align Goals Beyond the Pandemic 

One of the main mistakes of Covid hiring is getting a bit near-sighted and turning the short-term goal of “making it through the pandemic” into your main business goal. Short-term goals do have their place in your business plan but successful hiring is a long-haul process and perspective is key.

Just like our team over at MightyCall, you might have gone fully remote in the past months. Consequently, all the employees you’re presently hiring will be remote ones. However, when hiring during Covid-19 or any economic recession, you need to ask yourself: how well do I visualize the person as part of my team in the long-term perspective? Is the candidate interested in remote work permanently or it’s just a temporary fix for them? How about your company? Are you willing to negotiate flexibility for long-term remote workers and if so, to what extent?

In our company, remote work is a temporary fix to minimize health risks for our team during Covid-19. When hiring during the pandemic, we ask candidates questions about their post-Covid working preferences and goals and make sure those are aligned with our established policy. Remember: it’s less painful to lose a candidate now than a valued team member months later.

4. Focus on Integrity and Balanced Soft Skills

As the Head of Software Development in a digital SaaS company, I swear by professional skills -- they’re the alpha of tech hiring. But I also know we wouldn’t have been able to switch from 100% in-office to fully remote back in April when the Covid crisis hit us and to keep going strong for seven months if it weren’t for the fantastic integrity of our existing and new team members.

In new employees, I would advise to look out for character qualities that complement (not just supplement) your team spirit and suit your current working mode (e.g. remote). Don’t just look for “responsibility”. Look for result-driven passion, discipline, and grit. Look for integrity in performing even small tasks. 

Keep in mind that on every team, it’s critical to have both introverts and extroverts. There are people who give fantastic results when shut in their room and people who thrive during teamwork. In a remote working environment, balance is more vital than ever. You can’t underestimate the ability of many people to unify into a single harmonious organism. With a team like that, you’re up to any challenge.

5. Rethink Onboarding and Communication 

A new employee that steps “aboard” your company’s “ship” is supposed to quickly and efficiently become part of a team that steers it clear of many storms. That’s why those first weeks and months of onboarding are so vital in adapting the new employee to your “vessel”. 

At MightyCall, we make ample room for technology in virtual onboarding and team communication, but we also talk about what doesn’t work. Early on in the pandemic, we realized that random meetings across various digital channels take up a lot of our employees’ time and found a way to group calls during specific times of the day. We also determined one internal messaging platform that both new and existing employees are comfortable using, and stick to it for onboarding, virtual chats, and meetings.

In addition to onboarding activities, we found that one-on-one video sessions between new employees and their direct supervisors work best for both onboarding and creating an informal team spirit. Remember that new employees working in virtual environments need increased one-on-one communication, guidance and mentorship during this time.

Final Word

Hiring during Covid-19 can be seen as a temporary “fix” for a problem of a lost employee or a burning deadline. But it can also be the time to tap into a previously unavailable talent pool of amazing professionals and reconsider company growth. Before us is an unprecedented opportunity to seek out fresh talent, reevaluate team goals, and foster long-lasting compatibility that will survive the crisis for years to come. How we make use of it is up to us. 

Peter Vlasov is the Head of Software Development at MightyCall. Peter has a proven track record of development and technical accomplishment, as well as recruiting great talents and building teams.  Connect Peter Vlasov