[This post was last updated on April 22, 2020 – we continue to get notice of more vendors supporting employers with special offers.]
Many organizations are experiencing a surge in hiring as a result of COVID-19. Hospitals and labs, pharmacies and grocery stores, delivery services and many manufacturing organizations are all trying to hire rapidly to address this public health crisis.
In addition, talent acquisition professionals at most organizations have been tasked with reworking their hiring process so that it can be delivered 100% remotely. This comes with a unique set of challenges that have never been addressed before.
To support talent acquisition professionals during this challenging time, many vendors and agencies in the Recruitment Marketing space have stepped up to offer free or discounted services.
We interviewed five of these companies to learn more about what they’re offering and how you can take advantage of their discounted or free services. After the Q&A section, you’ll find a list of offers from other organizations that may prove useful during this time.
Q&A with Chris Forman, CEO and Founder of Appcast
Rally: What is Appcast doing to support employers and practitioners during this time?
Chris Forman: Public health experts have identified significant shortages of frontline workers battling the pandemic and the situation is only getting worse. Given Appcast’s expertise in helping recruit qualified and often highly-specialized talent, it was important that we figured out a way to support positive change during this time.
We launched a no-cost recruitment advertising grant program to support finding talent to fill these essential roles. It started at $100,000 and has grown to $368,000 following the participation of 12 job site partners, including CareerBuilder, Adzuna, and Upward. We are very excited that so many of our partners have mobilized around this cause.
We’ve also set up a weekly webinar series to discuss how COVID-19 is impacting recruiting efforts within specific industries like healthcare, transportation, etc. The sessions are jam-packed and we’ve aimed to arm recruiting and TA professionals in these industries with the data they need to adjust given the current job market. Our upcoming webinar on April 15th will focus on the retail industry.
Rally: Can you tell us more about the free program or service you’re offering?
Chris Forman: Applications for COVID-19 recruitment grants are being reviewed on a daily basis to understand what challenges companies are facing and how Appcast can best support them. So far we’ve awarded grants to 30+ organizations.
Rally: How can people contact you to get more information?
Chris Forman: Any governmental agency, NGO, healthcare system, or organization in the U.S. or Canada that needs to urgently recruit staff to slow and/or treat the COVID-19 pandemic can visit our COVID-19 recruitment grant page to learn more about the program and apply for no-cost recruitment advertising to put toward finding and hiring critical staff.
Q&A with Diane Smith, CEO & Co-Founder at GR8 People
Rally: What are you doing to support employers and practitioners during this time?
Diane Smith: We’re providing a suite of virtual recruiting event tools for free because, first and foremost, it’s just the right thing to do at a time when TA teams need intuitive tools that can support all aspects of their virtual recruiting event marketing and candidate management efforts. The decision reflects both our mission and one of GR8 People’s most important core values: Be Supportive.
This solution is turnkey, too, requiring only 2 days to get up and running. This quick timeline is something we see as essential because so many recruiters need support right this minute.
And, finally, since we want to make sure that any TA team can take advantage of the solution at no cost or obligation, the offer is not limited to our current customers — we make it easy for organizations to export their candidate data after all events.
Rally: Can you tell us more about the free program or service you’re offering?
Diane Smith: Our solution, which is free through June 30, 2020, helps recruiters engage talent with pre- and post-event communications, as well as automate template-based communications for registration, self-scheduling and reminders.
Other features include the ability to create a branded landing page for each event and pre-screening capabilities so attendees can move through pipelines faster.
And, because this is rooted in our “Be Supportive” value, users will have access to on-demand training and tip sheets, as well as our customer support team. A dedicated representative will develop the event landing page template and registration form, as well as templates for related communications and notifications. This gives TA teams a reusable model that they can adapt quickly and easily for all subsequent virtual recruiting events.
Rally: How can people contact you to get more information?
Diane Smith: Visit our virtual recruiting event management landing page to receive additional details and get in touch.
Q&A with Nate Smith, CEO & Co-founder of Lever
Rally: What are you doing to support employers and practitioners during this time?
Nate Smith: To help recruiting teams adapt quickly, we expanded our Zoom integration and made it freely available. Our top priority is enabling our customers to provide continuity for their candidates and to maintain hiring efficiency.
We fast-tracked the development of our Zoom integration, optimizing it for both remote candidates and remote interviewers, simplifying the process and providing a smoother candidate and hiring manager experience. Rollbar — a software analytics company and Lever customer — was able to use the integration to create a fully remote interview process in just two days.
In addition, we’re launching a new feature to automate triaging and categorizing applicants with custom rules. Automation and efficiency are all the more important at a time when many recruiting teams are having to take on more responsibilities with fewer resources. Lever is helping recruiting teams maintain a positive candidate experience while applicant volumes increase for so many.
Rally: Tell us more about any free program / service that you’re offering.
Nate Smith: Lever’s expanded Zoom Integration is available at no charge to every Lever customer until May 31st.
Rally: How can employers contact you to get more information?
Nate Smith: Go to lever.co/zoom to learn more and sign up for a walkthrough of the Zoom integration and the Lever platform.
Q&A with Aida Fazylova, CEO & Co-Founder of XOR
Rally: What is XOR doing to support employers and practitioners during this time?
Employers and practitioners just saw their hiring goals change overnight so we are focused on adapting our platform to ensure we continue to support them.
Aida Fazylova: For employers that are continuing to hire — we have built a virtual recruiting toolkit with text message communication, AI chatbot automation for screening and scheduling and virtual hiring events to help them continue to meet their talent needs.
For employers that are operating remotely — we are helping their HR teams communicate with employees over SMS, live chat and video to share new policies, send surveys and onboard new hires even as they are working from home.
For employers that are being forced to furlough or lay off employees — we are helping them to opt-in departing employees so they can receive text message updates when their jobs are activated and they are ready to be rehired.
Rally: Can you tell us more about the free program or service you’re offering?
Aida Fazylova: To help support employers and practitioners, XOR is offering a free COVID-19 employee checkup survey and employee communications solution with alerts and updates. This will help employers and practitioners keep a pulse on their employees’ health and ensure they are taking the recommended action based on the latest CDC guidelines.
Rally: How can people contact you to get more information?
Aida Fazylova: Employers and practitioners that want to take advantage of this offer should sign up here.
Q&A with Joe Essenfeld, Vice President of Strategy, iCIMS
Rally: What is iCIMS doing to support employers and practitioners during this time?
Joe Essenfeld: We’re doing a few things to support employers at this time. Many of our 4,000 customers, like 7-Eleven, Festival Foods, Southeastern Grocers, RPM Pizza – Domino’s largest U.S. franchisee – and more are quickly staffing up to meet current consumer demands. We’re providing them with the system and tools, such as text recruiting, video interviewing, chatbots and SEO-optimized career sites to do that in a timely fashion.
Our support and service play a big part in our role here. As our customers find themselves quickly pivoting to address pandemic-related needs, we’re working directly with them to come up with timely solutions. A great example here is some work we recently did with St. Jude Children’s Research hospital, a long-time customer of iCIMS. They reached out to their support team and called attention to the fact that they needed a better way to coordinate assignments for all COVID-19-related tasks.
After just a few hours, one of our implementation managers had provisioned and configured a dedicated internal portal to help them accomplish just that. Another example in this same vein is how we worked with customer Festival Foods to quickly launch a family and friends career portal. For weeks now, existing employees have been able to direct their networks to new job opportunities, fueling Festival Food’s ability to make fast hires.
Separately, we recently launched a career site – Connecting Customers – to help displaced employees find job opportunities with iCIMS customers who are currently hiring. In addition to helping people find work, the site is helping companies quickly fill critical roles in response to the pandemic. We’ll be updating it regularly to have the latest information and opportunities available.
We’re also working directly with our customers who have had to unfortunately furlough members of their workforce. We’re creating landing pages for them so that their affected employee base can work with other employers to bridge the gap until they’re able to come back to the office.
Rally: Can you tell us more about the free offerings for employers?
Joe Essenfeld: Absolutely! To help our customers continue to hire quickly and safely, we’ve worked with select members of our partner ecosystem community – including Modern Hire, OutMatch, ConveyIQ by Entelo, VidCruiter and HireVue – to provide a 90-day free offering of their video interviewing tools.
In addition to the Connecting Customers site previously mentioned, we have several kits available for free, which include informative eBooks and infographics, live on our website. These kits were designed to provide employers with the key insight into how they can rapidly address their recruitment needs.
We’re also hosting regular webinars to speak directly to affected employers, offering them information and advice during this critical time: Connecting to Your Essential Workers on the Frontlines.
Rally: How can people contact you to get more information?
Joe Essenfeld: All interested parties can visit our website for the kits I mentioned above, as well as information on our platform, partner ecosystem, and several other resources. To check out upcoming webinars, kindly visit our events page.
Q&A with Keith Ryu, Founder & CEO of Fountain
Rally: What are you doing to support employers and practitioners during this time?
Keith Ryu: Fountain focuses primarily on hiring and onboarding frontline and hourly workers, so we saw major fluctuations in applicants and new hires practically overnight. Like most HR tech companies, we recognize that COVID-19 is putting new stress on organizations across all industries, especially when it comes to the hourly workforce and keeping them healthy.
To monitor and share data and trends we’re seeing due to COVID-19, we have launched a weekly webinar series hosted by thought leaders across the business. To view past recordings or to register for the next one, please visit our webinars page.
We’re helping essential businesses find the workers they need through our streamlined hiring platform designed for recruiting hourly workers. It removes all friction from the process and makes it easier for hiring managers and recruiters to handle more applicants with fewer drop-offs. We’re also working with our existing customers who may have laid-off or furloughed hourly workers to support them during this time by helping these workers find new jobs.
Lastly, we have launched the Hourly Recruiting Community, a forum open to all recruiters, hiring managers, and TA leaders who focus on high volume and hourly recruiting to ask questions, share best practices, and have meaningful conversations as we all adapt to these new ways of operating.
Rally: Can you tell us more about the free offerings for employers?
Keith Ryu: To protect recruiters, hiring managers, and frontline workers, we are offering our video interview capabilities for no additional cost until June 30th 2020 to mitigate the risk and spread of COVID-19.
Rally: How can employers contact you to get more information?
Keith Ryu: We welcome all employers who hire frontline and hourly workers to learn more about Fountain by visiting our website, joining our community, or reaching out to us directly at sales@fountain.com.
Other companies offering discounted products and services
Bayard Advertising – Launched Hiring Again, a free job board for people laid off as a result of COVID-19. Visit the Hiring Again site to sign up for free and access this pool of talent.
Bullhorn – has pulled together a range of discounted offers and free services from their marketplace partners, including: 50% off text recruiting services from TextUs, 50% off video interviewing services from Spark Hire, complimentary use of SkillSurvey for reference checks and much more. You can view the full list of offers and conditions on their marketplace partner offers page.
Candidate.ID – is offering free access to their talent lead generation software. You can sign up on their #FreeRecruitmentCRM page.
CareerPlug – has launched Hire Up, an initiative to give back by helping businesses rebuild and displaced job seekers find work. They’re providing two months of free access to their hiring software for all new clients. Learn more about Hire Up.
ChangeState.io – which offers a dashboard to monitor changes to your Glassdoor rating, is offering 3 months free to businesses impacted by COVID-19. Learn more.
Firefish Software – is supporting recruiters who have been made redundant due to the virus. They’re offering a startup package for any recruiter interested in starting their own one-person agency. It’s a full package including a website, full professional CRM/ATS licence, an onboarding program and one-year access to their online training portal. Includes a 45% discount and no initial up-front cost for £135/month. Learn more.
Grayscale – is offering new customers unlimited texting for managing employee and candidate communications during COVID-19 for $99/mo, including free ATS and HRIS integrations. Learn more.
HiringSolved – is offering free access to their platform for TA teams hiring frontline responders for the remainder of 2020. Learn more.
InFlight – is supporting all companies that need to hire critical workers or enable remote workforces during COVID-19. They’re offering a 25% discount across their product range to all organizations and a 50% discount to those in the healthcare, hospitality and travel industries so they can improve business performance by removing friction for candidates, employees and managers. Learn more.
JazzHR – is offering free use of their ATS platform for companies hiring healthcare providers if you register before April 15, 2020. Learn more.
Jobiak – is offering their technology absolutely free of charge for healthcare organizations that are recruiting right now. They are also offering massive discounts to select employers in a number of other verticals. Learn more.
LinkedIn – is offering free job postings for companies recruiting healthcare professionals and certain essential workers. In addition, they’re also providing complimentary sourcing and phone screening services for COVID-19 healthcare and disaster relief recruitment. Learn more.
Monster – is offering free job postings for healthcare companies with COVID-19 staffing needs until April 30. Learn more.
PandoLogic – has established a fund up to $150,000 to be applied as grants to any qualified organization that urgently requires a boost to their workforce in support of fighting COVID-19. More info here.
Proactive Talent – is offering 50% off sourcing, scheduling and screening services for companies hiring healthcare professionals to fight against COVID-19. Learn more.
Starred – is offering all HR and Talent Acquisition teams free and full access to their feedback software to improve their candidates’ and employees’ experience during these trying times. Learn more.
The Employer Brand Shop – is offering free consulting sessions and 50% off recruitment marketing and employer branding services for companies who need to attract healthcare and other essential service workers. Learn more.
If you know of other discounted products or services that should be added to this list, please let the Rally team know by contacting us.
