Looking back at my life as if through a rear-view mirror has been like streaming a YouTube video at x2 speed.
Being a South African entrepreneur in the executive search and recruitment space during the pandemic certainly has its challenges, but being a businesswoman, mother, wife, daughter, sister and aunt, takes these challenges to the next level! Much has been written about the effects of the pandemic on the individual and the circles in which they move. I want to share a rather simplified version of what has worked for me at ground level, over the last 18 months.
Hire Power, a leading Southern Hemisphere Executive Placement and Recruitment Agency is passionate about inspiring growth in businesses and job seekers. As a boutique recruitment firm operating nationally and internationally, the pandemic motioned our practices, processes and mindsets into a new flow.
During the early lockdown months of 2020, we lost four months of business – no revenue, no activity, and mounting bills. What drove me to push ahead was a deep personal desire to keep my staff employed and able to earn their salaries. In mid-2020 when we were once again allowed to operate our business, our strategy shifted from searching for candidates to assisting the ever-increasing numbers of desperate and unemployed job seekers during these months. In a disciplined fashion, our team embarked upon a project where we wrote a series of articles that offered applicants resources and guidance on how to craft a “future-fit CV”, how and where to apply online and more importantly, how to prepare for a video interview. Our team documented the five steps of the Candidate Journey. These are freely available here.
The aftermath of the lockdowns has adversely affected companies, decimating their talent pools and changing the way they need to approach and conduct their business. Hiring companies not only face the challenge of sourcing and introducing skilled and experienced people into their teams, which can make an impact and move their businesses into the future, but retaining them. Hire Power uses tools such as talent mapping and data analysis to help leadership teams pinpoint, approach, assess and onboard the right people in the right roles and at the right level within their organisation.
Personally, WFH has had its challenges, the worst of these have been long working hours due to the timezone factor, and eye strain and screen fatigue caused by not being able to “disconnect” from my office and work responsibilities.
Throughout CoVid I’ve held onto these two sayings in order to save my sanity. The first one is, “Just stay in your lane”. Don’t worry about what everyone else is fearing, doing and thinking”. Secondly, “ReThink. ReLearn. ReTrain. ReSet.” New skills are required for people to prosper. I’ve made good use of online education offerings (both formal and informal) that ordinarily I would not have had access to.
Jeannine invites those needing to hire top calibre individuals into their organisations, to get in touch by email or via the CONTACT US tab on our website.
#PlacingPeopleChangingLives.