In recent months, there have been signs that the great hiring boom is slowing down. Technology recruiters, for one, are feeling the pain after months of seemingly limitless growth. At points last year, there were more open roles for technology recruiters than there were actual open technology jobs, according to The New York Times.
While there are still plenty of open jobs, many companies have laid off employees, paused hiring, or dialed back their growth plans.
A wave of talent is ready for their next jobs for companies still hiring. But if you are one of the many who have temporarily paused hiring, now is the time to reimagine and revitalize your talent operations.
Doing so takes significant work, but it will pay off when once you start hiring again. As our internal data and other research show, jobseekers are getting more offers and deciding which company to join much quicker than in previous years. Getting your hiring in order during this fallow time may mean the difference between finding your next crop of excellent employees in the future and failing to attract the right talent.
Prioritize a Meaningful Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) not only take work but also require partnering with external resources that can help you honestly assess your current situation. Start on the right foot by finding and hiring black, indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC)-owned companies and consultants that can help you assess your current footprint.
That partner can help anonymously assess your current diversity makeup and interview employees to get true insights without fear of repercussions and create a report that can’t get watered down by internal stakeholders.
Once you have that, you should create two goals: those that are reachable with the right resources and those stretch goals you should aim to hit. Next, you need to fund the DEI function, which may or may not involve hiring a DEI lead. Make sure there is executive buy-in, and consider performance incentives to achieve success. Finally, communicate honestly where you are and where you hope to be to internal stakeholders and potentially externally if your company values include honest and transparent communications.
Train Your Employees to Become More Enlightened Advocates of Your Company
While your talent teams manage the recruitment process, your employees represent the company in interviews, networking, and other arenas that could attract candidates. Take the downtime to train employees on interview skills and unconscious biases.
Highlighting mission-driven aspects of the brand, the best aspects of company culture build an employer brand for prospective candidates and bolster company culture—kind of a win-win 🙂
Work on Your Interview Tone
The quickest way to create unnecessary turnover is by enticing candidates to join with an interview process that creates an impression that is different from the actual company culture. You may need to start by identifying your company culture, which you can do from the top down (asking executives about the culture they want to propagate) and the bottom up (asking the employees what culture they are currently experiencing). If there is a disconnect there, you already know there’s a lot of work ahead. Once you have a good handle on that culture, explore how it should manifest in interviews, e.g., formal or informal, funny or serious, personal or impersonal.
Smooth Out Bottlenecks in Your Hiring Process
In our 2022 Hiring Insight Report, 41% of talent personnel respondents said increasing efficiency was their top priority for the next 12 months. As with other departments, it’s hard to improve processes when you’re in growth mode or slammed with daily tasks. If your hiring is slowing down, now is the time to allocate resources to streamline your talent acquisition process. Here are some questions you should ask yourself:
- Do you have trouble scheduling interviews because of antiquated systems?
- Do you have trouble making offers on time?
- Do you value building candidate relationships?
- Do you rely on the same employees to interview everyone?
You are not alone if you answered “yes” to most of these questions. While 47% of respondents from our talent acquisition leader survey stated building better candidate relationships over the past 12 months was a priority, only 34% prioritized it. All the above demonstrate a company struggling with efficiently hiring talent. Most of these issues can be solved through the smarter deployment of technology.
All of this is important for one simple reason: The candidates you want to hire have changed dramatically and irrevocably since the pandemic, and so must your hiring strategy if you want to secure great talent.
Even the most streamlined talent operation can always use a tuneup. As highlighted above, times when hiring declines can create uncomfortable situations for talent executives because their main activity halts. So that department needs to make a strong case for the importance of being ready for when hiring picks back up and putting in the work to make sure that future hiring spree is as fruitful and efficient as possible. It should become your mantra: Even if we’re not hiring today, the battle for future talent starts now.
Ahryun Moon is CEO of GoodTime.