“Even though there is a slow down when it comes to hiring for us, it doesn’t mean that we stop hiring” Jun Abo, Transcom’s Country Head of HR, said during the recent HR Nation Masterclass webinar.
The COVID-19 pandemic continues to be a challenge for both businesses and their employees, and recruitment is one of the most heavily affected areas. To help HR practitioners formulate a more efficient talent acquisition strategy, HR Nation held a free webinar titled “Talent Acquisition in the New Normal: Recruitment During the Pandemic” last May 19, 2020.
Jun was joined by esteemed leaders Judith Tubil, Foodpanda’s Head of Human Resources, along with Brent Denning, Salarium’s Chief Operating Officer, who shared their thoughts and experiences on what recruitment strategies and processes are ideal during the quarantine periods to the new normal.
Transcom’s Jun Abo, also known as the “Fairy Job Father” in the HR and Talent Acquisition community, focused on the two first steps of the recruitment journey, which are the Sourcing (Advertise + Search) and Screening. He asked the viewers to identify whether their usual sourcing channel is still effective in the new normal, and discussed how they can connect to the right audience.
“The future of hiring is engaging content,” Jun said when he emphasized that businesses should invest in digital marketing given that out of 70 million Filipinos that are active online, 69 million are on Facebook. He shared that in Transcom’s Facebook statistics, they had more engagement during the lockdown compared to the earlier months of 2020. Their strategy is not just to produce content on Job Opportunities, but to also give free tips and factual references for their talent community. Businesses should differentiate themselves to others by showcasing their company culture more than signing bonuses and large compensations. He said that the audience is now looking to organizations as a source of truth and reliable data, so “If you produce the right content, you are going to get the right engagement.“
He also urged companies to revisit their recruitment process, and automate the steps that are repetitive and administrative if they can.
When a webinar participant asked about the cost of digitizing their hiring engagement, Jun answered that they had a 25% decrease in cost per hire from traditional hiring engagement.
Download Jun’s complete presentation JUN ABO (TALENT ACQUISITION IN THE NEW NORMAL).pdf
Foodpanda’s Judith Tubil, a 20 year veteran in the HR industry, shared that Foodpanda’s delivery demands have tripled in the lockdown. For their talent acquisition, it is important to have extremely competent recruiters, a well-defined and streamlined recruiting process, and functional and friendly technology. She emphasized that “sustained recruitment productivity is attributed to strong brand equity” as it helps in their practice to encourage their new hires and employees to refer their friends. To build employer brand equity, they publish thought leadership articles on Linkedin and other social media sites and tracked engagement.
As Foodpanda operates in an even more fast-paced and dynamic environment, the new normal for their backend employees is to really work online. This set-up, as they conduct all interviews and other recruitment processes online, has not affected productivity. With that, Judith urged businesses to capitalize on technology such as HR systems that can help track their employees’ attendance online.
Judith also highlighted the importance of employee engagement, especially during these times to keep employees “sane and attached“. When the audience asked what type of employee engagement activities they conduct in Foodpanda, Judith answered that they invested in Kahoot, with “very minimal cost compared to the engagement“, with employee-winners rewarded with cash and Foodpanda vouchers. They also asked employees to share their work-from-home testimonials.
Brent Denning, Salarium’s Chief Operating Officer, shared his insights on talent acquisition from the C-level executive perspective. As companies try to adapt and survive, “HR is under the microscope”.
Brent identified how businesses are coping: Defensive, Aggressive, and Progressive. Defensive companies focus on cutting costs, reducing staff, and maintaining profitability. Aggressive companies focus on taking advantage of the absence of their competitors and investments. Progressive companies cut expenses efficiently, reallocating some to new opportunities that arise in this situation, which he said to be the most effective of the three approaches.
Brent discussed that businesses need to have strategies during the three phases during the pandemic, which are React, Recover, and Reimagine. The React phase is during the ECQ and MECQ, where companies’ operations are very restricted; The Recover phase is during the GCQ, where the government gradually allows companies to have some of their staff work at the office; and the Reimagine phase which will be the new normal, where some of the companies’ pre-pandemic practices won’t be feasible.
With these, Brent urged HR to make such strategies, be involved in the decision-making process of their organization’s heads, and be quick in implementation. He told them to be the leader of the organizational mindset.
On new opportunities, Brent shared an example about Salarium—a complete and cloud-based payroll system with transparent timekeeping, effortless payroll, and secured payout features— and how their prospects are becoming more interested in their timekeeping module. Salarium’s Transparent Timekeeping feature allows employers to monitor their employees wherever they work, “not necessarily what they do every moment, but efficiently record and manage time-ins, time-outs, paid and unpaid breaks, etc.”
Download Brent’s full presentation BRENT DENNING (TALENT ACQUISITION IN THE NEW NORMAL).pdf
Jun Abo and Judith Tubil are two of the HR leaders that will be featured in “The 50” book, HR Nation’s project that will distill the insights of leading HR practitioners in the Philippines across every aspect of human resources that transforms an organization. The book is set to be published later this year.
