COVID-19 The Economic Impact
Who better to invite on the show to talk about the economic impact of the current COVID-19 crisis. We welcome, former labour economist turned Global Talent Acquisition Manager. Enter, Steven Kosakow. With a passion for people and the candidate market, of his early career, he tells us, “I was really curious as to why are there so many disparities in terms of the wage gap for genders and ethnicities”.
As Steven realised he liked “working with people rather than computers”, we fast-forward to the present day. Now a Talent Acquisition professional that has “always been involved in building companies”, he tells us, “I love what I do!”.
Going back, to addressing the topic of the show and the current crisis,
“You’re never going to get where you’re going if you don’t have a plan!” and he thinks that it’s okay to say, “right now we don’t actually have that path”.
He advises that this is the time to be “thinking differently about how we navigate” and offers the opinion that we could, “turn the uncertainty into something we can learn”.
Live and express your values!
Discussing the topic of brand and brand messaging, Steven highlights some of the “really thoughtful” companies that are thinking about their employees and who understand,
“How you leave an employer is just as important as how you join them.” He knows of stories where an employer has “laid off in a Slack channel, the whole entire team”.
This is why Steven believes it is so important to set the right expectations for candidates by being transparent and telling applicants, “things are going to be a little bit slower”. He has also seen companies be more proactive and tells us, “I’ve seen a lot of employers post this in their job descriptions too” or “on your website”.
In Steven’s opinion, it is key for companies to think about their messaging, actions and brand during the crisis in the context of candidate and employee experience,
“The market is changing, even if it is an employers market, you still need to attract the right people, and the only way to do this is to focus on developing communities of talent through high-touch connection.”
As a final piece of advice for employers, Steven ran a poll to gather information from the experiences of individuals impacted by the economic impact of the crisis and he tells us, “when I sent out the survey, I asked what number one piece of advice would you give employers now? One word that came out was “empathy”.
If that wasn’t enough, below you’ll hear Steven talk about:
- What is the definition of palaver?
- Reviewing your ATS auto-responses
- Coronavirus preparedness
- The importance of employee and candidate experience
- How to position your message if you’re still hiring
- Aligning the hiring team for virtual hiring
