The latter half of 2022 has been marked by rates of high inflation and continued market stagnation. As we enter 2023, economic uncertainty continues to loom. Although job numbers have remained relatively strong, there are signs that a weaker economic environment is on the horizon. While organizations of all types are exposed to this type of market volatility, recruitment firms and talent professionals can find it especially difficult to effectively achieve an optimized workforce during a recession.
Regardless of what actually lies ahead, it’s always good to be prepared for uncertainty. Here are the best practices for staying on top of your hiring game in an economic downturn:
Assess Your Hiring Needs
As a talent professional, you should be continually assessing your company’s hiring needs regardless of the economic environment. It’s always a good idea to evaluate your long-term goals and what skills and talent your organization needs to attain them. During market downturns, most organizations shift into survival mode and begin focusing more on immediate needs. Are there open roles that are necessary to fill now? If so, it might be worth considering a freelancer or contractor for short-term project work.
When the market is volatile, it’s important to be quick with hiring decisions. As conditions change, funding for additional roles may be pulled, leaving open roles unfilled until things improve. Additionally, when making an assessment of your company’s hiring needs, be sure examine your overall hiring process as well. Are there areas you can tighten up, or do you need to change your strategy entirely to attract better candidates?
Create a Plan
Staying proactive is crucial in times of economic uncertainty. After assessing your needs, outline a plan of how you’ll accomplish your hiring goals in 2023. It may be helpful to create both a best-case and worst-case scenario. If a recession hits and continues to worsen, how will your talent needs change? Will there be hiring freezes? If the market pick up again, what additional roles will you open up?
Having a plan of attack will allow you to set appropriate expectations with hiring managers regardless of the hiring environment. Things can also change drastically over the course of the year, so it’s also important to remain flexible and pivot quickly. This will keep you ahead of the game and ensure your organization continues to succeed to the best of its ability.
Utilize Hiring Software
One of the most drastic changes the pandemic has left us with is the increasing use of automation or AI, especially in the hiring process. If your company has yet to adapt to this change, it may be worth investigating whether adopting a hiring software is right for you. There are a number of valuable solutions on the market today that can assist your hiring needs, including applicant tracking systems, candidate databases (or CRMs), and even onboarding software after you have acquired talent.
Each hiring software has different pricing models depending on the size of your company. When times are tougher, you may only be able to allocate funds for a few key platforms. When conducting your needs assessment, examine the current (if any) software you are using and what efficiencies could be gained by making strategic investments in new tools.
Enlist Professionals
When recessions hit, organizations tend to become more resourceful enterprises operating at full capacity with as few resources as possible. This can lead to teams being spread thin as they take on more projects and responsibilities outside their normal scope of work. When this occurs, getting support from a professional recruiter or recruitment team can be one of your safest bets.
Outsourcing to a recruitment team will ensure an optimized hiring process in line with a set budget while also enjoying expert guidance in the current market environment. Giving a third party more responsibility and hiring tasks to control can also free up your business to focus on long-term strategy and growth, which is crucial during uncertain times.
Conclusion
The best thing you can do when facing a potential recession is to assess and develop a plan. Being proactive about hiring and knowing your next move are important to ensure your organization is able to attract and retain key talent to keep systems running and generate maximum revenue.
If your organization’s recession plan includes optimized hiring practices using software or professional support, reasonably priced solutions are available. One option is ScaleFront, an open recruiting platform that connects talent seekers with remote applicants around the globe. The solution also offers recruiting consultants who can help assess your needs and ensure your organization finds the right people to keep your business running.
Finding the right tools can make all the difference when times are tough. Make ScaleFront a part of your 2023 plan today.
