Companies that are agile and ready to move quickly will be able to scoop up top talent and be back to ‘business as usual.’ On the other hand, those that are still figuring out how to navigate the new world of recruitment/talent acquisition will miss out on many well qualified candidates.
As a recruitment professional for the past 18 years, I have seen my share of everything - from record low unemployment rates to large national layoffs. Our current state is no different, and I see opportunity for the taking, if you’re ready. And when I say ‘ready’ I am referring to organizations that should be able to assess a few key areas and be able to act quickly and create a plan.
Three areas that organizations should be evaluating now – the status of your current Talent Acquisition (TA) team, how your current recruitment program reflects on your brand and whether or not your recruitment processes can use some improvement.
Rebuilding TA Teams: Many TA teams have suffered wide-spread reductions. With that comes the question of whether or not you will rebuild those teams. Leaders will need to determine if you have enough long-term hiring volume to justify an entire team. However, in the meantime, is there a hiring strategy in place to ensure that other open positions throughout the company are being filled in and a plan to the handle the high volume of applicants that may start coming in?
Candidate Experience: Your brand is important, to customers and to candidates. A negative recruitment experience can have a lasting and damaging impact on your brand. Candidates who don’t feel appreciated or valued during the recruitment process (especially those who are not ultimately hired) can spread that negative feedback quickly through social media, family, friends, etc.- which can damage your company’s brand. As you are evaluating your processes, it’s important to look at the candidate experience and see where there are opportunities to create a better one.
Process Improvement: Can your process use some improvement? As I previously mentioned a negative candidate experience can have consequences. Now is the perfect time to review your current recruitment process and improve it. Find ways to enhance candidate & hiring manager experiences and ensure it is efficient, effective, and driving greater business impact.
To harness these opportunities, there are options to consider if you cannot quickly evaluate processes and plans completely. Consider the following short-term and long-term solutions to help you leverage the talent opportunity:
Contract Recruiters
- A way to expand your TA team to manage the short-term spike in volume (in both hiring needs & applicants)
- Helps minimize your risk of building out too large of a TA team. You will have enough recruiters to handle your company’s ongoing hiring needs and compensate spikes in volume.
Sourcing & Screening Candidates Support
- Another short-term fix to help your TA team focus their efforts on top qualified candidates vs. hours a day sifting through applications
- Supports a strong brand strategy through positive candidate experiences by leading with a consistent recruitment process and following up with every single candidate
Outsource All or Parts of Your Recruiting Needs
- Partner with someone to handle all the heavy lifting of your company’s recruiting needs.
- Allows you/ leadership team to maintain focus on the strategic moves to be successful and thrive.
No matter which path you take to move your talent strategy forward, there are short- and long-term solutions that can that can help any TA team navigate the opportunities in the days ahead!
Leslie Minchin, PMP is the Director of Implementation & Solution Design with Engage2Excel. She is a strategic leader with over 18 years of experience in continuous processes improvements, bringing order to chaos, and delivering high quality results. Leslie has a strong focus on people, partnerships, and process. She is passionate about designing & implementing innovative solutions to complex problems in order to drive best in class practices aligned with companies’ goals and core values.
