Adaptation and Retention of Staff During Wartime: Tips from a Smart Solutions Recruiter

War affects all aspects of life, including business and the labor market. In such conditions, managers and recruiters face new challenges as they strive to ensure the stability and efficiency of their teams. Svetlana Haidar, Deputy Head of Recruitment at Smart Solutions, discusses the key aspects of adapting new employees and strategies for staff retention.

Main Challenges for Recruiters Now: Where to Find and How to Interest Candidates

For candidates without experience or with 1-2 years of commercial experience, job sites, social networks, and working with educational institutions work well. However, most highly qualified specialists who are not in the armed forces or have not gone abroad have stable and decent jobs. They are not looking for new offers, so a recruiter needs to find candidates through LinkedIn, recommendations, or other sources. And then – engage the person and understand what might motivate them to accept an offer. It’s not always about money.

“Among the main reasons might be the lack of opportunity to work remotely or in a hybrid mode. Or, on the contrary, the person is tired of the remote format; the lack of career or professional growth; the lack of work/life balance and the prospect of professional burnout,” – says the specialist.

Companies Should Ensure Comfortable and Appropriate Conditions for Staff

• For office workers, ensure the availability of a bomb shelter.
• In production or other processes where a person cannot leave their workstation independently, team leaders must have an action plan on how to quickly complete processes and move people to a safe place.
• For remote employees, the main issues are electricity and internet. If possible, companies should purchase power banks and other necessary devices to ensure power supply. Otherwise, they should agree on a flexible work schedule with employees.

Adapting New Employees Remotely Requires Special Attention

When adapting online, in addition to the standard tasks, it is necessary to ensure the employee’s engagement in the company’s life. Some companies conduct virtual tours of the office or production facilities, maintain social networks where they share successes and new projects, conduct general training sessions, or socially important projects involving both offline and online employees.

The company should have a clearly defined general corporate plan for staff adaptation, which can be supplemented individually to meet the needs of specific employees.

The War Has Made Significant Adjustments to the Process of Recruitment, Adaptation, and Retention of Staff

The labor market is increasingly becoming a candidate’s market, where specialists have the opportunity to choose between offers. The probationary period now exists not only for candidates but also for companies. Among the main reasons for changing jobs are the lack of salary reviews, insufficient internal training systems, and unclear grading and career growth systems.

“The main mistake in retaining staff now is the lack of updating the material and non-material motivation system. It is better to prevent resignations than to spend the budget on finding and adapting new employees. Companies periodically turn to our agency to conduct salary reviews to understand the market situation and revise motivation systems because resignations have become more frequent in their companies,” notes Svetlana Haidar.

HR Specialists Have Also Adapted Recruitment Strategies in Response to the Challenges of the War

Recruitment agencies act as intermediaries between the client and the candidate. The main difference in working with candidates is the transition of almost all interviews to an online format.

“As for clients, more and more often, consultations are needed regarding the compliance of vacancies with market demands. For example, a company provides a vacancy specifying experience in a similar field and position. For narrow fields and unique professions, market analysis is conducted regarding the availability of such candidates, and most often, the client is advised to expand search channels to related fields or professions to speed up and optimize the selection process,” – comments the Deputy Head of Recruitment.

Market Needs Have Also Changed

The most relevant vacancies now are:

• Engineering and technical specialties, professional working professions due to the lack of specialists related to mobilization.
• Accounting and finance due to the lack of qualified specialists, especially with experience in international companies and a high level of English proficiency.
• Business development managers and sales managers focused on entering new, including foreign, markets.
• Vacancies requiring a high level of English proficiency. This is related to business expansion and recruitment in international companies.
• More attention is paid to candidates’ soft skills. If a person fits the company’s corporate culture and values, they are ready to train them.

Changes in the Labor Market and Wartime Challenges Force Organizations to Review Their Strategies

They need to update motivation systems and ensure comfortable and safe working conditions to maintain team efficiency and business operations. After all, investments in people always pay off, especially in difficult times.