With the unemployment rate at 8%, one would think that recruiters are not very busy these days, and yet—how to explain that it is just as difficult to recruit over the past few months as it has ever been?
At first glance, for some people anyway, recruiting is very easy, as the ranks of the unemployed swell. Someone was recently telling me how easy our job is compared to 2007 or 2008. Really?! On the contrary, candidates have never been as cautious about making career changes, nor companies so picky about hiring the best. Processes are getting longer, interviews are taking on a different tone and background checks are getting more complex. While it is true that people are getting laid off, this does not mean they are ready to leap at the first opportunity. They are taking their time and making sure they back the right horse, because they do not want to repeat the same experience six months down the road.
Let’s not kid ourselves—talent is as rare as it ever was. If you are lucky enough to find that rare pearl among the ranks of the 8% unemployed, don’t waste any time hiring him or her before your competitors do. Keep in mind that many of the newly jobless are highly qualified, know their worth and find themselves idle not because of poor individual performance, but because they have been let go for economic reasons. There’s a difference, and what a difference. How many companies can still claim to be “trimming the fat,” when it’s well-known that most work teams were already lean even before 2008? We are in situation of crisis so intense that recruiters don’t know where to turn. We are overwhelmed, on one side by candidates’ requests—our inboxes are overflowing with interview and résumé update requests, and new applications, and on the other by hiring managers crying out for help. The trick is delivering what is expected, with one third fewer people in place. When a company decides to pink slip people to save on salaries, and then replace them with less costly resources, I can assure you that the pressure on recruiters is enormous—to find equally experienced but cheaper candidates is quite a feat.
How can recruiters find their way out of this mess and stand out when the recovery gets off the ground? How can we maintain our fragile “employer image,” without delivering our best people or candidates to the competition? And tomorrow, how to attract passive candidates in our recruiting processes?
The following are a few solutions or things to consider:
– Invest in your new pool of candidates. The good news in all this is that candidates are now more easily coming to you. While attracting them is still an issue, the current context provides you with the opportunity to stand out.
– Respond to ALL your calls, voicemails and email—in a personalized way—even faster than before. No need to write a book, but avoid sending a trite automated reply, or even worse, not replying at all.
– Focus on exploratory interviews and encourage exchanges and discussions with your internal and external pool of candidates, because they need you to listen to them. Help and guide them. Even if you have nothing to offer a candidate, but he or she has skills that you were looking for barely six months ago, invite him or her to come in for an interview, even if it’s only for 30 minutes. Keep in mind that a few short weeks ago, you would have done anything for just three minutes on the phone with the person, so spare a few minutes for him or her now. Be consistent and determined. Say that you have nothing to offer him or her, which is true—you can’t, after all, create jobs out of thin air, but that you would like to touch base and see how the job search is going. You do not realize what a difference you have just made at this very moment. Another good reason to get in touch is that you can certainly find out things about the person’s former employer and what is currently happening in the market. Doing this now will pay off in the future, when you contact the person for a new assignment, because he or she will remember how you treated them.
– Discover future recruiting pools and identify potential talent targets. Which companies in your line of business are laying off, and which of your competitors seems to be weaker? You now have free access to this market intelligence. Note: be honest, transparent and above all, ethical. Do not take yourself for James Bond, and make good use of the information you get.
– Develop your internal and external network. Take advantage of the situation to connect with players in your industry, sector and company. Meet your managers, and get to know them better (it’s incredible how open people become in times of crisis). Update your profile on Facebook and LinkedIn, be on the lookout for new sites like Twitter, and learn to use these tools for recruiting. Introduce yourself to professional associations in your sector, and get involved in discussion groups and issue tables. Create a buzz about your company. Attend events, cocktails and other networking platforms. In short, get closer to your target and your internal clients. You have to be able to show that you are as interested in them in bad times as in good.
- Update your databases, policies and procedures for greater efficiency tomorrow.
The decision to be a human resources professional, and a recruiter in particular, is based on sound values. Now is the time to communicate them and to establish your added value. If recruiting is perceived as nothing more than a transaction, seize the opportunity to prove the opposite and show that “intelligent recruiting” is based on relationships. This means that it is your network, the market and your ability to forge special connections with people that will allow you to better target and recruit the best talents more quickly.
The downturn is providing you with a golden opportunity—don’t let it get away!
Nathalie Francisci, Adma, CRHA
Executive Vice-president
at Mandrake Groupe Conseil