It has been a year since the pandemic started and a lot changed from that time. The world experienced closed country borders, quarantine measures like masks and temperature checks in all public places, cancellation of mass events, and strict lockdown conditions that forced us to isolate ourselves from the outside world and spend a year at home.
For sure it had a drastic effect on the economic situation, many businesses haven’t survived the crisis and millions of people were left unemployed due to massive shortenings.
Luckily with the governmental help and insurance packages, many people who suffered the job loss were able to receive help from the government (like the federal CARES Act that offered $600 per week for the unemployed and its equivalents in other countries).
But that brought another issue when people haven’t rushed to return to the job market when things started getting back to normal and hiring processes continued because the financial help may exceed the expected salary.
The employment gap still remains high that’s why business owners are constantly reviewing recruitment strategies and adjusting their policies to make the vacancy and conditions attractive enough.
So here we go with the compensation pack ideas employers can use for luring people from collecting Unemployment Insurance back to the job market:
Cover Education Costs
One of the main work aspects of employee value is the employer supporting their development. While the company receives its benefits in having more competent workers, it’s also the contribution to the employees’ loyalty and retention rates.
The changing market conditions demand quick adaptation so investing in the upskilling of your employees especially in technical fields like engineering will give you a competitive benefit. This may include sponsoring the activities like preparation for passing the PE exam, skills development workshops, and web conferences. Such information in your vacancy posting increases the chances of applying to it and accepting the job offer.
Child Care Compensation
Since during lockdowns child care institutions and schools also went remote, many parents especially those who have kids of nursery age cannot return to work simply because they don’t have the opportunity to leave children alone while they are working.
So offering them flexible work hours and child care compensations for babysitters significantly boosts the chances of getting them back to work.
Incentivize Healthcare And Caccination
Health concerns are another bothering point for job seekers. It is valid for people working in public places like stores, coffee shops, and others that presuppose increased numbers of social contacts. They are worried about catching the virus and bringing it home because it can jeopardize the health of their family members.
So extended medical support that can cover medical insurance for employers and their family members, additional sick leaves, and paid days off to attend relatives and partners who were affected by the pandemic.
With the vaccine development, things got a bit easier. If it’s not included in the medical insurance plan employers offer, they can either sponsor the vaccination cost, or reimburse the time spent to get a shot. By incentivizing vaccinations for your employees you make them feel protected and speed up the return to the workforce.
Ensure Safe Work Conditions
As COVID-19 is not going away anytime soon and people want to work under the safest possible conditions, employers should take care of the safety in the onsite working place like a social distance of 1.5-2 meters between working places, supply masks and face-shields where necessary, timely cleaning and sanitizing the office building to protect employees.
While the impact from unemployment help is a bit overestimated as the studies prove quite the opposite, it still had a negative impact on the workforce as many companies engaged in small local businesses like cafes and restaurants were forced either to close or to shorten their staff and taking into account the lockdowns, these people had no means of finding the job in their sphere.
So lack of job places was also the issue, and combined with the global economic crisis triggered by the COVID pandemic brought the need of the changes in the labor market starting with l the hiring approach employers use to attract the new workforce to their businesses, improvement of onboarding processes along with reorganizing the working space and employee benefits package.
