5 Ideas For Your Recruiting Team During A Slow Period

There is no doubt that many companies throughout the U.S. and the World are going through a difficult time. For a lot of companies hiring has slowed and for some it has come to a screeching halt. Here are 5 ideas for your Recruitment Team if activity has slowed down.

1.    Cross train …… There are a couple of different angles you can take with this recommendation. One, have your Technical Recruiter(s) train your non-technical Recruiters and vice versa. When volume peaks again having Recruiters that can recruit across the functional spectrum will save money on recruiting fees and ensure you have legitimate coverage on all roles.

Two, partner with your other HR Functions to help alleviate some of the workload they are currently experiencing. While roles are on hold there are still other areas of Human Resources that are busy. And since your Recruitment Team is privy to a lot of confidential information and knows how to act to with discretion, they are a good team to leverage during a slowdown.

2.    Fine tune your interviewing process ……. Folks will say “Yea, but we aren’t doing a lot of hiring so what’s the point?”. To that I say, when you are hiring you will tell me you are too busy to focus on improving your process, so take this opportunity to do it.

For those of you that are working on some critical positions the hiring process has changed. Firms are extending offers based on video interviews. What learnings can you bring forward when things normalize? Are you tracking metrics to share with hiring managers after this is over? For instance, average time to offer before video interviewing started and then after. Is there a competitive advantage you can gain when hiring picks back up?

For those of you that are on a hiring freeze you can still look at your competency based interview questions and give them a refresh. Take a look at web based and manual assessments (i.e. coding tests, etc.) and measure how effective they have been in hiring top talent.  Now might be a great time to renegotiate your terms with these vendors and save some money.

3.    Look at your offer process ……. There is no point in expediting the interview process only to have the offer approval process take 2 weeks. There are going to be exceptions on more senior offers where there are buyouts, but on more junior roles you should be able to turn around an offer in a couple of days at the most. Use this time to constructively review your process and identify the challenges that are holding up your process. Make a recommendation to your senior management team supported by the facts you uncovered during your research.

4.    Use your network to help job seekers in your industry and beyond ………. Recruiters usually have vast networks and know other Recruiters. Find people that are out of work and help them network to find a job. Critique their resume and give them feedback. I guarantee that person is going to remember you if you need to network with them in the future.

5.    Take time to review and evaluate your vendor list …….. Some firms do this annually and some every 6 months. Try digging deeper though:

a.    Have you tracked how candidates you have hired from your vendors perform one, two and three years out?

b.    Are there interview trends amongst the teams who hire better performers?

c.     Now is a good time to get to know your vendors as well. Who is working on your roles? Ask for their name and do some research on their background.

d.    Create a 2 tiered vendor list that allows you to move non performing vendors to the second tier, but also allows you to give new agencies an opportunity.

Hope you have enjoyed some of these ideas.  Be safe and stay healthy!

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