With the mass hysteria about the outbreak of the COVID-19 aka the Coronavirus, a lot of major companies are asking their employees to work from home in an effort to try and lessen the spread of the virus.

Microsoft recently asked its employees in Silicon Valley and Seattle to work from home, as did Facebook and Google. Amazon asked its employees worldwide to stay home if they can. Even schools and universities are closing and asking students and teachers to carry on with online-courses instead of meeting face-to-face.

Given the mass amounts of employees now working from home, the effectiveness of telecommuting is being tested for the first time on a large scale. It has been talked about for the past 20 years as being the next new wave of work culture, as telecommuting has been found to have a lot of benefits for companies and employees. Even though the amount of those who work from home has increased immensely (in recent years with around 43% of American’s work remotely) the world has never seen this number, until now.

So, how exactly does telecommuting benefit not only companies but also employees as individuals? Here are some ways telecommuting has been proven to be beneficial.

To hire a smoker or not to hire a smoker? That is the question! But is it discrimination not to? The answer is surprisingly yes and no, and primarily depends on where you happen to live. It’s a debate that has been recently reignited as U-Haul—the company best known for renting you a truck to help you move—has implemented a nicotine-free hiring policy. As of February 1^st of this year, if you a candidate submits an application to work for U-Haul and they smoke cigarettes; they may be in for an unpleasant surprise. While this isn’t the first time a policy like this has been implemented, U-Haul (with its 30,000 employees) is the first major company in its field to do so. Let’s take a closer look at what’s really going on here, shall we?

In today’s world, most everyone is stepping into their careers with a college degree and the best experiences in internships, special projects, and volunteer work. So, it can be difficult for companies to attract and eventually hire the hardest working and most talented candidates. These days, rather than everyone else scrambling for one job at a top company, top companies are scrambling to bring in top talent.

Employer Branding and Recruitment Marketing are no longer just a term being thrown around among HR professionals. The ideas of Employer Branding and Recruitment Marketing are now essential conversations in the creation of recruitment strategies and companies ranging from high-level corporations to local start-ups are all getting in on the action.

But what do these terms mean?

Why Diversity in The Workforce Fuels Growth

At a young age, we all embraced an unlikely iconic duo of a bird and a snuffleupagus without questioning their collaboration. Elmo’s age and species are up for debate, but his contribution to our emotional development as human beings would be hard to dispute. We idolized an entire street of monsters and grouches and adults and kids that lived in harmony, and maybe some of us begged our parents to move there.

When you peek your head up from your cubicle/out your office door (now that we’ve all (allegedly) grown up)—what cast of characters do you see? Do you a heterogeneous mix of backgrounds, races, ages, and monsters? Or is everybody just like you?

The trend of hiring people who are a good “cultural fit” gave us a bunch of people who were exactly like us, who liked the same things, and knew the same things, and believed the same things. If we all agree, where is the room for growth in the organization?

Replacing employees is expensive.  The 2017 retention report says that it costs about $15,000 to replace an employee making $45,000.

To save on high costs, energy and resources, your team needs a talent pipeline.

A talent pipeline is a group of professionals who are ready to fill future positions that your company will need. It requires the act of switching from passive recruitment to active recruitment. Meaning, instead of waiting until an employee gives their two weeks, you are consistently in the recruitment process.

Talent pipelines are important to have in place to fill hard-to-replace positions like upper management or jobs, like sales, that have high turnover rates.

You can start by steadily planning the future structure of the company and building a network of professional relationships. Be strategic and follow these 5 talent pipeline recommendations.

When hiring a new employee, there’s always the risk that they aren’t as good of a fit as you thought. Someone confident and charming who seems great on paper might not actually have applicable skills they need for the position.

Someone’s ability to successfully complete an interview may not reflect their ability to do their job. A successful interviewee might just be more personable or do better under pressure. That’s great for sales or customer facing jobs, but probably doesn’t apply to how well someone can do in a technical or creative position.

If you want to hire someone who is actually good for the job, you need to ask the right questions. Take into consideration these interviewing techniques to find someone who will be a good fit beyond the interview.

Mental health affects 1 in 5 United States adults and is a leading cause of disability in the workplace. That’s 46.6 million people.

The World Health Organization estimates that mental health related disorders cost the global economy $1 trillion in productivity every year. Mental health presenteeism, which is workers who attend work but are mentally unable to work, costs 3x as much as mental health absenteeism. Not only is there a direct impact on productivity and profits, but a negative effect on office culture and the health of your employees.

Hiring the right candidate for a position is an incredibly important decision for any company. Candidates are potential employees, employees mean productivity, and productivity means money and success for the company. Therefore, time and diligence should be invested in the hiring process.

One great tip to plan out your interviews is to first determine exactly what you are looking for: what tasks will the potential candidate need to accomplish within the first year? This not only makes it ultra-clear to you what exactly the job entails and what characteristics a candidate needs to possess, but it also creates a bigger, long-term picture of the goals of the company and where you see the candidate standing in that picture.

We are excited to announce that Nikos Livadas has joined Nexxt as Vice President of Strategic Alliances. With more than 20 years of experience as a leader empowering cross-functional teams, developing strategic plans, and implementing successful global sales initiatives, Nikos will head Nexxt’s strategic alliances team to work hand-in-hand with partners towards the shared goal of bringing candidates and employers together.

There has recently been hard debate surrounding generalists vs. specialists and who’s a better fit for your workplace.

The well-rounded truth is: both.