Mitchell Martin Inc. Establishes Coalition to Help “Hire Away COVID” 

As the nation struggles to fight the economic effects of the pandemic, a new organization will work to help get people back to work by connecting actively hiring employers with people who  have been laid off due to COVID-19. 

Mitchell Martin Inc., one of the nation’s largest staffing firms, has announced the formation of HireAwayCOVID – a coalition that will help connect people who were displaced due to COVID-19 with companies that are still hiring.  

The newly formed coalition enlists the help of other businesses in the industry to support the movement.  The basis of the movement includes a call to actively hiring businesses to publicly announce their hiring plans in order to increase economic confidence.  There is also component to collect the names and profiles of people who were laid off during the pandemic.  The coalition has partnered with Upsider.io to create the largest database of displaced candidates with over 12,000 profiles to date.   

In addition to Upsider.io, other co-founders of the coalition include Sixcel, Talent Tech Labs, Dice, Modern Labor and LinkedIn. Co-founders are asked to help promote the movement and urge employers to sign up and utilize the candidate database for their hiring needs. 

The idea for the movement came from Josh Holtzman, a member of Mitchell Martin’s executive team.  “When I first heard about COVID-19, I read the news every day, and every day grew more and more afraid of what was going to happen to us” said Josh.  “It made me wonder how companies could work together to help people affected by COVID-19…. Being in the staffing industry, we know a lot of people in charge of hiring at many large employers.  We also have connections to other recruiting firms, job boards, software companies that help people hire, resume services, etc.  It just made sense to start there and work towards building a coalition of companies who are experts at helping people get jobs.” 

Presently, HireAwayCOVID is seeking employers who are actively hiring to sign up on the site and are encouraged to browse the database to find potential new hires.  Any businesses who have or are currently laying off employees can share the resource with their displaced staff.  HireAwayCOVID welcomes new partners or anyone who would like to support the movement, a statement that is reinforced by their motto: “We are all in this together, and together is how we will fight.”    

For more information, contact Viola Sarkantyus @ viola.sarkantyus@itmmi.com