My first job out of college was at a startup. We had a carnival style popcorn maker in the kitchen, a fire pole connecting the 1^st and 2^nd floor, kegs on Fridays, yoga classes every Tuesday and Thursday, and a softball team, and if you’re thinking, “Wow none of this can happen right now!”—you’re not wrong.

Shared food? Germs.

Fire pole with a bunch of hands? Ew.

Close spaces with a lot of people exhaling while “finding their breath”? NOPE.

We know our employees spend 40+ hours a week in their home away from home aka at work, and we know that the more they enjoy the time they spend working with us, the more productive time we get from them. But now, we can’t provide the same environment, and we can’t provide the same perks. Sorry team, we’re going to have to get creative and come up with some new incentives.

Nexxt recently launched its Resume Database Solutions to help companies and staffing firms enhance and enrich their talent databases with fresh candidates. Nexxt’s Resume Database Solutions are designed to help companies make connections with both active and passive job seekers. According to a recent survey, 3 out of 4 of job seekers said they’d like companies to have their resume on file so they are considered for opportunities that become available in the future. For that reason, it doesn’t matter if an organization is in the midst of a big hiring push or one is on the horizon—companies in all states of the recruitment process benefit from making those connections.

Nobody was quite prepared to scale down on the fly in March, and our HR and infrastructure teams did a great job quickly reacting when the world went home for a few months. While we are all waiting for us to get back to a {new} normal, we have an opportunity to be thoughtfully preparing to bravely re-enter this ever-changing world. When the switch gets flipped, and all systems are go—will your recruitment tools have a pipeline of candidates waiting for you? How can you make sure your tools are working for you in the background so when the time is here, you’re ready?

My office knows me as the open-air office evangelist. I saw our group go from a team-derived clique system to a cohesive family unit over the first month we acclimated to our open-air office, after years of being in cubes, separated by department. It was the eavesdropper in me, I couldn’t help myself but involve myself in conversations being had in front of my face, and that, in turn, became team synergy, camaraderie, and a fair amount of heckling.

I do miss the heckling, to be honest, but we’ve all been rightfully grateful to have the ability to stay healthy and keep working apart these past few months. As states move from yellow to green, and from phase to phase, we are starting to think about how the office will change—and what, if anything, can stay the same?

While we are working from home week in and week out, the lines between personal and professional time blur together like the days of the week. In the last few weeks, I’ve found myself thinking “Oh great it’s Monday” only, surprise! it’s actually Thursday! (this has happened more than once). I find myself logging in earlier, and sending emails later, and checking my inbox when I’m walking the dog, reading the chats from my Microsoft Teams app on my phone while making a meal, and overall just obsessing about work way more than I should.

Now, like most Americans, I have nowhere to be at the moment. The only place I can be is home. But after overthinking if I should ask for a day off while simultaneously thinking about what I would even do with the time, I logged 8 hours of paid time off (PTO). Let me tell you, dear reader, it was a well allocated resource, and I hope I can inspire you to put your time off to good use too.

Everyone’s Invited! Talent communities are key for companies looking to build a talent pipeline to make hires now and in the future. Download the pdf.

Nexxt’s Talent Communities service helps companies build their talent pipelines. According to a recent survey, 53% of job seekers said talent communities are a great way to submit information to a company without committing to a specific opportunity and 77% of job seekers said they are interested in becoming members. Accordingly, Nexxt’s Talent Communities offering can make that happen.