Amber Richards

To turn company morale around after a layoff, it is crucial to be transparent with both the laid off employees & those that remained, on the reason for the lay off. Be honest about what happened & how you plan on avoiding it in the future as well as turn it around quickly. Offering counseling to everyone will show that you care about them. I think it is important to take it a step further and bring in a firm that offers outplacement services, HR services to help your current HR department, training & development for those staying (work loads will increase & new tasks needed from employees) & the most important service during these times which is a culture assessment. Revamping the culture within your company after a layoff is critical.

If the hiring process is lacking creativity, I would gather the whole team together to get everyone's input. I want to hear from the recruiters that are doing the job daily what they would like to see changed. Some of the changes could include, revamping the job descriptions to use more casual verbiage, adding an assessment or questions on the application, being more creative with how the managers interview, finding new ways to market the jobs or creating fun job ads that are out of the box. Once we brainstorm and have a list of ideas, we implement the changes and monitor the data for improvements.

When remote team members are struggling and not meeting expectations, I seek first to understand the reason that they are struggling before making a decision on how to address it. Once we have identified the issue for not meeting expectations, we create a plan to get back on track. That could include additional training, scheduling additional 1:1's to offer support and/or creating a daily schedule to ensure all of the tasks are completed. Monitor the progress as they implement the new process and make adjustments as needed.

I agree with Christy Honeycutt, be authentic. Seek a mentor for yourself and seek someone that you can mentor. I was taught early in my career to always have a mentor and always turn around and help someone else. It is hard some days to get out of your head, but you have to find a way to do just that, stop overthinking. Stop being fearful and allow everything to fall into place. Fear is not helpful, it actually delays things because you are getting in the way. I decided to connect with nature and started walking my puppy a few times a day. We would do 4-5 mile+ walks. Just listening to the birds and watching the animals. I realized that I will be ok. Listen to music if that helps. Just remember to breathe. You've got this!

Communication is top priority when focusing on a good candidate experience. When they know what's going on and what the next step is, then they are ok. But when you leave them hanging on, waiting in the darkness, then they are not ok and will move on. Clear communication is key.