2020: The Pandemic, the Chaos, and the Impact on our Interactions
There’s no other way to put it, 2020 has brought about unprecedented times, circumstances, and hardships.
We’re missing our families, our friends, and human interaction on levels we’ve previously taken for granted. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted how we learn, how we work, how we parent, and how we socialize.
To note some positives, which admittedly is not easy, 2020 made people reevaluate what really matters: what drives them and what sustains them. People, now more than ever, are focused on making the most of their time away from work, and are focusing on the activities that make them happy. In other words, our collective tolerance for wasting time on annoyances and minutiae is lower than it has ever been.
This year has also compelled people to eliminate the “noise” from their day-to-day life and seek information that is actually useful. As an aside, I’m personally drowning in push notifications and emails — mostly frivolous: shopping promotions, useless apps I’m long overdue to delete from my phone, suggestions for streaming shows I’d never watch, and on and on.
While this year of exhaustion, stress, and uncertainty has impacted everyone individually, it’s also had a knock-on effect on how organizations search for and recruit talent, as well as how candidates respond. Sadly, due to the economic impacts of COVID-19, there are a lot of people who have been put out of work. It’s a strange landscape of supply and demand, and of competition and selection. But for jobseekers and for organizations who are connecting, these days it’s about connecting efficiently and personally.
Rooster: Making Recruitment Personal Again
The recruiting process for most organizations begins with an online application, but where the personal interaction really begins is in the screening and interviewing stage. Simply put, this is where the candidate and the organization are deciding if they like each other. It’s also where the method and style of communication really matters, and this is where we at Kognitiv felt there was a big gap to fill in terms of the solutions available.
Rooster helps break the ice and efficiently manages the interview process with candidates. Rooster connects to your Workday system. You can seamlessly schedule interviews across email platforms such as Office365 and G Suite. We live on Zooms, WebEx and Teams meetings right now and guess what — all of this is automated through an easy-to-use and familiar interface that can be accessed on a desktop or mobile device. Rooster combines the calendars of your interview team, video conferencing and conference rooms into a user-friendly dashboard allowing you to quickly schedule available time slots that work for everyone.
Need to schedule a quick phone call with a candidate? Rooster has you covered by reducing back and forth communication and allowing candidates to select their own times. Want to send a personalized calendar invite to the candidate and interviewers? No problem. Communication templates are customizable and you have the ease of including attachments such as a job description and/or resume for interviewers. Do you ever need to send the same communication to multiple candidates? Rooster provides bulk interview capabilities such as auto-book for a quick phone screen and even requesting availability for an interview.
Oh and by the way, when this pandemic is over and you’re back in the office, Rooster will still be here waiting for you to schedule interviews in person right in the comfort of your conference rooms.