7 Mental Health Tips for Recruiters and Marketers to Work from Home

​I attended the really valuable APSCo HR and LD Forum about mental health, and how to keep recruitment staff healthy during this time of Covid and beyond. Here are some working from home tips for marketers and recruiters.

This dovetailed really well with last month's forum which I wrote about Returning to Work After Covid (but, oh, the irony of this week's "stay at home" message is not lost on me.)

Julie Bowen kicked of the meeting with some great points:

We are witnessing a slow and staggered return to work. And there are pockets of recruiters (and their clients and cands) working from home. The boundaries between home and work are blurred. This is causing angst, stress, confusion.

Some WFH (Working from Home) Stats to Warm You Up

(These WFH stats are from my own research and are pre-Covid)

• 40% of people feel the greatest benefit is the flexible schedule.

• Companies allowing remote work have 25% lower employee turnover

• People who work remotely at least once a month are 24% more happy / productive

• 74% are less distracted / 86% are less stressed

• 21% would give up holiday allowance to have flexi-working (69% of millennials would give up other benefits)

• WFH saves at least 11 days per year travelling

How Can We Support Recruiters and Marketers With Mental and Physical Health and Well Being?

Rob Stephenson gave a fantastic presentation on mental health and working from home, and some great tips of how to improve “form” for recruiters, their leaders, marketers and teams.

• Sleep / nutrition / exercise – don’t underestimate how you can ensure your teams are aware of what they need to do to care for themselves. How can you engage them to be effective in these areas?

• Financial wellbeing – can you invite financial experts to run webinars / sessions for your team to educate them and alleviate any stress in this area?

• I loved his comments on “creating of purpose” – as its likely that working remotely has eroded our sense of purpose, and we need that back to help us stay engaged

• Connections – We are disconnected, from our staff, our bosses, peers, clients and candidates.

• Stress management – WFH creates a different type of stress. Recruitment is known to be a “positive” stress job, but there are new stresses that you and I have not planned or trained for.

• Helping others – Working at home may feel like a disabler when you’re used to helping other people.

You can read more about Rob’s thoughts here – there are some great insight and ideas.

My Suggestions for Helping Your Recruiters, Marketers, and Their Teams With Mental Health Whilst Working from Home

1. Exercise is something that I was lucky enough to continue throughout lockdown, but others may be limited due to health or situation. How can you get your teams motivated and those endorphins going? Could you have a “power hour”. Any of you up for a bit of lycra and Zoom HIIT? Could you nominate a personal trainer in your team?

2. Reconnecting – Your 3Cs (candidates, clients, colleagues) need help staying connected. Half daily video scrums (09:30/12:45) with the team to keep them focussed and engaged is what we do at Barclay Jones. More regular video calls with clients and candidates are key for recruiters. What can you do to reconnect your staff and teams? Waiting to go back to work is not a solution. This is the new normal. Keep your staff connected through tech. Can you leave Teams (Zoom) “on”, and not just use it for meetings. Be present as leaders. Communicate with the team throughout the day, like you would in the office.

3. To help you all move forward positively, stay focussed and engaged, set goals – and don’t be afraid to reset them if they are genuinely not viable. My team used to have 90 Day Rocks (a Traction term) where we smash issues and implement ideas. We have reset these Rocks to 30 days, to help us be more agile and react positively to the change around us.

4. Praise – It’s easy to say thanks when you’re in the office. If you use Teams, try the Praise App and call out some great behaviours – perhaps even focus on Values-led behaviours?

5. And talking of Teams – what are you doing to really “get” Teams (or Zoom) as these are crucial tools, as crucial (if not more so) as your phone. We’re building out a Trail on our Recruitment HIIT on demand training platform to help recruiters learn how to use the channel not simply to communicate but to help them run their desks. Bullhorn, Adapt, Job Adverts are live, and we're about to go live with HIIT+ where you can add your own training. A great way to connect your teams.

6. And talking of training. Leaders need to admit that perhaps their staff were not as effective as they’d like before Covid. Now WFH creates even more risk of low productivity and unchecked poor quality. And these team members are unlikely to stick their hand up and admit their weaknesses. There has never been a better, or more important time, to train your recruiters, resourcers, marketers. (Grab a free trial of our on demand training Recruitment HIIT)

7. And plan for Covid - I've had a stressful week for me awaiting Covid test results for my 8 year old. All of us in isolation, not able to leave the house. The school websites were not geared up for isolation learning, and we didn't necessarily have the right food etc... My work diary was choca! It was super-stressful. Create a plan, so that you know if you need to isolate, you will be ready.

Good luck, recruiters, leaders and marketers. It's going to be a challenging few months. Let's go into it with our eyes open, a plan, and at least the hint of a smile.

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