A Glimpse Inside Our Boat

A saying that I heard early on in the pandemic has stuck with me, "We are all in the same storm, but certainly not in the same boat." As an entrepreneur, I felt that deeply while watching a business that took a decade to build completely unravel within a week. Each interaction and email with our clients rapidly transitioned from a "pause" of two weeks to an indefinite suspension of services for two months or longer.  There were many hard conversations with my own team at NLR as we attempted to navigate the difficult and convoluted government assistance packages in order to keep our business afloat. There were also moments of despair and envy as we watched others sit comfortably at home living their best lives untouched by the damage, and whose biggest problem was running out of shows to watch on Netflix. These were then rapidly followed by equally humbling moments of anguish as we watched others lose loved ones and struggle to make ends meet.  

We are all certainly in the same storm, but I would like to give you a glimpse of what it was like in our boat. In times of crisis, the best thing that you can do is focus on the things that you can control. Once it became apparent that this would not be a short-lived aberration, but something more extensive, we decided as a team to continue working for our clients ... free of charge. Each and every client save a handful shuttered during the first two weeks. We could have easily thrown our hands in the air and rode out the pandemic making Tik Toks, following new baking crazes, and watching reruns ad nauseam. However, I'm pretty sure we would have all gone made from pure inaction - and I am grateful to the work we completed during this period as it has helped us all maintain our sanity. Furthermore, the world is a very different place as we begin to reopen officially and the work we put in over the last 10 weeks has positioned us to hit the ground running miles ahead of the competition, rather than merely struggling to adapt and catch up. 

Each week we have updated our clients on our initiatives to improve their businesses and the changes we have made to position them perfectly in the new recruiting climate. As each client was putting in the same work fighting for their businesses and their own teams, we owed it to them to fight alongside and make sure that we came out the other end of this better than before and ready to support them in every way possible. There were certainly days where we did not feel like fighting, but we dug deep and pushed through no matter what. There were also weeks where the money became incredibly tight as we anxiously awaited funding and I did not take a salary in order to personally finance the team. Nevertheless, we persisted, we overcame the obstacles, and are all the better for it.

So how did we take it to the next level? As our own motto goes. Well, we have taken a more holistic view of our clients' recruiting and human resources needs. 

- We have taken the time to completely rewrite and update each job requisition and budget for each client to reflect their new demand levels and recruiting climate.

- We created a College Recruiting Program for each client in which they have access to all their local schools and a direct line to top talent who are now graduating in one of the worst job markets in history. We are proud to assist those graduates in finding meaningful work while also helping our clients fill new roles. 

- We have become experts in transitioning clients into No Contact interviewing and corporate training when previously they were most comfortable sitting down in person, while also providing detailed consults on restructuring the office environment for optimum safety.

- We sent out FREE virtual team building activities, branded safety posters, safety press releases and notifications, team engagement activities, compliance for rehiring, and recruiting trend updates. These are new services that we will continue post-pandemic as well.

In closing, I want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the team. Taylor, Megan, Jess and Sydney - your loyalty, perseverance, and hard work will never be forgotten and it is YOU who make our company truly Next Level.

P.S. - For a more detailed insight into our quarantine activities, please check out our social media for each team members' profile!