Plan Now for Your Return to Business After the Pandemic

Aug 7, 2020 | First Person

 

By Molley Ricketts, founder and president of Incipio Workplace Solutions

We are certainly living in uncertain times—times that require us to be more strategic than ever before. That means now is the time to be thinking about how you’re going to restart your business after the pandemic. I like to think businesses will be “rebounding” rather than “rebuilding.” And when the time comes to rebound, it could happen slowly or for some businesses, it could happen immediately as if someone has flipped a switch. So what’s your strategy? How prepared is your organization for what’s ahead? And how do you prepare? From a human resources standpoint, you must proceed carefully.

For example, if you have laid off or furloughed 50 to 100 people, the likelihood of all those people coming back is slim to none. After assessing your workforce, let’s say you hope to get half of those former employees to return. Since you’ve terminated their employment, they will need to fill out an application and go through your entire hiring process again. From a compliance perspective, you must consider everything from background checks to drug testing. For a former employee, a lot may have changed in recent weeks or since they were initially hired four or five years ago.

For some organizations, hiring 10 people a month would be overwhelming. Imagine hiring 50 or 100! Are your applications and interviewing processes in compliance? Are you prepared for training these new people? Are you ready for the mentoring and professional development new hires deserve?

Finally, you have to ask yourself if your human resources team is prepared. If some of your HR staffers were part of the pandemic layoff, you may find yourself understaffed and overwhelmed. This could be the time to consider an outside resource to ensure you’re hiring people the right way—and the legal way.


About the Author…

Molley Ricketts, a member of NAWBO-Kentucky, founded and sold her first human resources consulting firm in 2010. She began her business as a contract recruiter, and over the course of several years worked with ACCENT, Luckett & Farley Architects and Engineers and GE Intelligent Platforms/Yoh. Molley enjoys helping businesses hire better people and build better teams using superior technology and social strategies the web has brought the recruiting business. Learn more here.

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