Crisis Management & Talent Acquisition | @LevyRecruits on The #SocialRecruiting Show

Treating humans like humans!

This week’s Guest, Steve Levy is a community builder, recruitment legend and a passionate believer that “they’re PEOPLE not candidates”. As a Co-Founder of ATAP (Association of Talent Acquisition Professionals) and with a 20-year+ career in the world of recruitment and TA, we asked Steve on the show to learn about his experiences and how he has navigated Global and US-centric economic crisis in the hope of offering advice and guidance for the current challenge we face as a Rec and TA community as the fallout from the COVID-19 virus becomes our new reality.

Steve starts with discussing the Dot.Com bubble where,

“Companies just stopped hiring and people simply didn’t know what to do, and we are running into the same situation here.”

 “It comes down to basics – treating humans like humans.”

Talking to the title of the show, Steve tells us “the inability to effectively communicate – good, bad and ugly – is a hallmark of bad crisis management at any time”.

As we get into the heart of the subject, we ask Steve for advice he would give his Rec and TA team during this period of uncertainty and says, “you’re consistently reaching out to people – but don’t pitch them!” and “right now may not be a good time to fly into another City…but it doesn’t mean I can’t still ask you about your career goals.” Additionally, “any crisis is an opportunity to look at every aspect of your talent acquisition model”.

It’s a change of mindset

Moving onto the subject of TA and Rec functions, Steve discusses the Capability Maturity Model he created that “looks at Talent Acquisition along 5 key axis – planning, organisational impact, systems, processes and metrics” and then you can “look at every aspect of your function”. In short, teams have an opportunity if they want to look closely!

Like every week, we get some great questions from our audience and Stephen Telford’s “Remote Revolution” comment sparks a conversation thread about the opportunities of remote working enforced by the crisis and Steve tells us,

“It’s a mindset, it’s a change of mindset”.

He advises companies to lose the ego and ask candidates and interviewees, “what would be best for you right now?”.

On the subject of people and culture, Steve makes us aware of the hashtag #boomerremover, an illustration of the negative impact of social media, however, he tells us “we need to find a way to revisit the humanity” and “not use this as a springboard for treating people poorly”. And on the important topic of building teams, he leaves us with an opinion that resonates deeply, “culture isn’t something that’s defined, it’s something that’s lived.”

If that wasn’t enough, below you’ll hear Steve talk about:

• Humanity over fear of action
• Peace of Mind (POM) calls (kudos to Rob White) 
• The economic impact of a crisis 
• Unconscious bias and in-person interviews 
• Is recruitment like online dating? 
• Building culture with remote teams