Pandemic Reflections - Javier Gore

Meet Javier Gore. Javier is a Talent Acquisition Specialist with Loblaws. Javier graduated from our Human Resource Management Diploma in 2019. We asked Javier to reflect on how the pandemic has impacted his work-life.

“My work has been impacted significantly by the COVID-19 pandemic because my role relies heavily on in-person interaction; not only to develop relationships and connections but also to follow up and in order to influence decision-making. I’m working 100% remotely. Intake meetings with Hiring Managers are done through video calls and any questions or resolutions to simple roadblocks are resolved through instant messaging (chat).

During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, I was redeployed to support Loblaw’s store network with recruitment of temporary in-store labour jobs. Loblaws’ leadership did an exceptional job in putting together a recruitment taskforce of 150 recruiters who hired 17,000 colleagues across Canada in just nine weeks. Store-level hiring support started in late March and ended in early August.

My usual role is comprised by 3 major pillars. The first is full-cycle recruitment, which involves leading recruitment processes from job requisition through final candidate onboarding. The second is employment branding, which involves participating in recruitment fairs and events, and last pillar is community partnering, which involves engaging with employment and educational institutions in Winnipeg to create meaningful experiences, like work placements or internships.

Although I’m coping fairly well, I came to the realization of how heavily the HR profession relies on human interaction and soft skills; which are the cornerstone and main foundations of HR profession. In this “new normal” I suggest leveraging technology as much as possible in order to offset the lack of in-person interaction.

In connection with the redeployment to other duties, I also learned it is also very important to be flexible and versatile to be able to adapt to unpredictable situations.”