Job Candidate Wish List: 4 COVID-Friendly Ways to Stand Out

How do you stand out to a job candidate in a COVID-19 world? 

It’s been almost a year since COVID-19 caused widespread changes in the marketplace. It’s forced a lot of organizations to change the way they do business.

It’s also changed the way the typical job candidate looks for work, evaluates opportunities, and considers career moves. 

Besides pay, benefits, and opportunities for advancement, the COVID-conscious job candidate has a few things on their wish list. 

If you want to stand out, here are some things to consider:

1. Stability

State-by-state mandates to control the spread of COVID-19 in 2020 caused a lot of roller-coaster upsets in the job market. 

This included layoffs, furloughs, record unemployment claims, bankruptcies, and other cuts that hit businesses hard and caused candidates to think beyond pay and benefits.

They want stability—assurance your company is here to stay, invested in taking care of employees, and is able to pivot and change without closing the doors.

Tip: Highlight your wins, efforts, and plans to establish stability on your career page. When a candidate wants to evaluate your organization, finding this information may be the difference between them applying and accepting an offer or simply moving on.

2. Transparency

Every job candidate knows these are “unprecedented times.” Even in the most stable industries or career fields, there’s still a measure of uncertainty in a COVID-19 world. 

And the job seekers thinking about making a career move or entering the workforce after college, just want you to talk straight about this. Be transparent. 

That doesn’t mean you have to broadcast bad news or sugarcoat the truth. But you need to be honest and transparent.

Tip: If a candidate asks you hard questions, answer candidly and honestly. It’s one of the best ways to build your brand and reputation. Even if an individual declines an offer, speaking openly and honestly about any risks or potential changes on the horizon, builds trust instead of having the opposite effect.

3. Remote work 

Not every position and organization can promise remote work to a job candidate. But many organizations that once used the default: “we’re not set up for remote work,” have been forced to change.

For many office-oriented positions, working remotely is entirely possible. It’s also one more way to comply with social distancing mandates to control the spread of COVID-19.

Do you offer remote work options? Let your job candidate know upfront. It might be a must-have requirement on their wish list.

Tip: If you don’t offer remote work options, what would it take to make it happen? This might include things like a:

• Work computer
• Work phone or cell phone compensation
• Digital time-sheet or software to record work hours
• Remote-work software: email, chat, video conferencing, scheduling, virtual meetings, project management software

4. Business ethics

Looking for another way to stand out when a candidate is weighing their options? Salary, benefits and work-life balance are important. But in the COVID-19-era, some job candidates also want to know if you’re an ethical company to work for.

It’s another way to establish your reputation. If you treat employees fairly and operate with ethical standards, that’s going to show up positively on review sites where a job candidate might search for something like: What’s it like to work at company X?

Tip: If there’s an ethical issue in the past that you’ve resolved, own in. Let potential employees know what happened, how you resolved it, and what your plan is for moving forward.

The typical job candidate is going to be interested in pay, benefits, work-life balance, and opportunities for advancement. But after that, they’re going to evaluate their decision to apply or accept an offer based on some of these COVID-era wish-list items.