If you’re looking to hire right now, chances are you’ve weighed the options carefully and determined that hiring is an immediate need. But as we all know, and you are probably experiencing as you try to hire in this environment, things look different now than they did a few months ago.

Jake Hutchings, U.S. Army veteran and Bradley-Morris/RecruitMilitary Executive Vice President, Sales, discusses how to recruit in this “new normal,” and what practices you need to change for good:

When I bring someone in for an interview, the first person they will meet is Shelby, who sits at the front desk. Later, I’ll ask Shelby what she thinks about that person. Were they rude or dismissive? Were they friendly? That tells me a lot that the interview portion won’t.

With so many companies moving to a remote workforce, we have lost steps like this. This is just one example; there are many more like it.

Maybe you are wondering how you are going to interview candidates or do a site visit. You might be asking yourself how you are going to introduce that candidate to your team and show them the equipment they’ll use for their job. And how are you going to make sure that that candidate is comfortable in your working environment if you can’t read their nonverbal cues?

The question is “What are you doing as a company to overcome those obstacles?”

The way you recruited in the past is going to look different as we move forward.

##Backwards Planning

In the military, we planned our missions backwards. That means we’d start with the end goal and break down every step from there to the starting point.

When it comes to hiring, the end goal is to have the new hire working successfully and independently. Most of the time, that process looks something like this:

1. Recruit
2. Interview and Conduct a Site Visit
3. Hire/Onboard
4. Train
5. New Hire Works Successfully and Independently

To backwards plan for a model like this in times like these, ask yourself: “Does the organization have the appropriate technology, equipment, and support to enable that new hire to do their job in an environment that meets or exceeds government safety regulations?”

If you cannot answer yes to that, everything you do before that is for nothing. If you can, then great job! You can move to the next step: Training.

Is the company able to do remote training? Do you have health and safety measures in place for any in-person training required? Have standard operating procedures been built for each process to help alleviate the need for in-person instruction?

It’s a matter of taking each step of the process, looking at it in the context of our new environment, and determining what needs to change. Ensure that the candidate feels comfortable with your processes as well.

For example, at my company, we do hiring events. When COVID became a looming threat, we shifted to virtual events, right away. Our goal was to make clients and candidates feel safe and comfortable doing business with us.

> **Backwards Plan and SOP your “new” Recruiting Effort**

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##Make Improvements Now

When backwards planning, recognize the fact that things won’t go back to how they were before - not all the way. As you make changes to processes, technology, or platforms, make sure you choose something that will last and that serves you well. If panel interviews are important, don't get rid of them. Find better and more efficient ways to do them.

Like most others, we are leveraging virtual meeting sites, like Zoom or Microsoft Teams. Skills tests and assessments are online and being proctored virtually. Even site visits can be virtual. Some companies will virtually show recruits around the plant or office.

There are many alternatives that offer unique benefits. For example, our virtual career fairs offer breakout rooms, which allows the recruiting team to break out into individual interviews during the career fair. At our physical events, we can’t offer a breakout room for every single guest because the event spaces just don’t have that capacity.

For the past few months, everyone has been operating in a reactive state. What many of us are finding is that some of the “patches” we’ve put into place are actually more efficient than the original processes. If this seems to be the case for your team, don’t go back to the old way of doing it. Make the new process last and make improvements on them. Why wouldn’t you want to put something into place that will stand the test of time? Your processes should be equal to (or similar to) how they were designed before, and then apply them the same way across the enterprise as you bring people on.

##Let the Experts Help

Good talent will always be good talent. If you’re hiring for a critical position, you probably don’t have time to waste looking for the best candidate. Find experts in the hiring/recruiting space to help you [find good talent](https://recruitmilitary.com/employers).

At RecruitMilitary, we already have the tools and the platforms prepared to help both clients and candidates find their best fit. We are equipped to set up virtual platforms for our customers, and a veteran-specific hiring consultant will help them get the best results.

The best talent will still be the one everyone wants. If you're not prepared to make an offer, somebody else will be.

Don't be *that* company that gets left behind the curve. It's “adapt or die” right now, and it will be for the foreseeable future. Plan backwards, make permanent improvements, and use the experts. You’ve got this.