Should You Stop Recruiting When the Economy Is Down?
Few business leaders feel like throwing caution to the wind these days – and we don’t blame them. Slowing job growth, rising unemployment, and some highly publicized layoffs are prompting many to move with caution—especially when it comes to recruiting and hiring.
That’s reasonable enough, but should you really treat an economic downturn like it’s time for hibernation? Should you try to keep your movements to a minimum, sleep on transformative opportunities, and wait until the market heats up again?
The short answer: you’re not a bear. Taking a long entrepreneurial nap isn’t going to sustain your company through lean times. When the economy cools down, successful business leaders stay alert and awake, positioning themselves to make smart choices now and when market confidence rises again. A key part of that is having the right people in place at the right time.
In other words: Keep your recruiting game strong.
Are You Prepared to Take Advantage of Opportunities?
Because so many companies get complacent during cooldowns, they often don’t hire the talent they need at the appropriate time. No matter when, there are always opportunities. That is, if you have the vision, chutzpah, and talent to realize them.
There are numerous success stories during the bust part of the cycle, even during some of the worst economic moments. Brian Chesky started Airbnb during the Great Recession and built a name brand for travelers on a budget. Even during the Great Depression, Michael J. Cullen recognized the potential moneymaker supermarkets could be and opened the King Kullen Grocery Company.
Established companies have a different experience than startups (they’re leaner and needed to reinvent themselves at times), but there are still chances to evolve that shouldn’t be overlooked.
Some disciplines can’t wait without your entire business lagging.
- Artificial intelligence – Buzzword that it is, AI has many proven applications that boost productivity, reduce risk, and expand capabilities. Find low-hanging fruit (always test first) and reap the rewards.
- Data Governance – When the market cools, your data is likely the key to keeping growth moving. Hiring someone who can establish and maintain data integrity, compliance, and security can turn your profits into assets and protect them from attacks.
- Cybersecurity – Ransomware is increasingly unforgiving, AI is accelerating identity theft, and social engineering is enhancing the ability to deceive people. If you’re like 78% of SMBs and one cyber-attack could put you out of business, you need to hire cybersecurity professionals now.
Whether you hire a forward-thinking full-time employee or project-based consultant, it’s important to stay attuned to your workforce needs.
Are You Working to Maintain Your Connections?
Even if you don’t have short-term plans to hire, you need to maintain your talent pipeline. Think about it: if that pipeline freezes over while you wait for the economy to pick up again, then you risk having it burst right when you need to be scaling up.
When the economy recedes, you need to keep an active presence in your industry and communities. Here’s just some food for thought:
- Build Rock Solid Connections with Candidates – Nobody likes fair-weather fans or friends. We all want to feel like our connections are “in it” for the long haul.
In fact, we’ve spoken to plenty of candidates who feel frustrated when recruiters dip in and out of their InMail, acting like each conversation is a transaction. Successful companies get to know their talent pool long before the first interview starts.
Building relationships, especially ones that bear fruit for your workforce, requires effort, and we’re willing to put in the elbow grease. During slower seasons, your organization still needs an advocate for your brand.
Our recruiters do that by scheduling regular calls, sending useful information, and finding ways to make the incredible humans we meet feel appreciated. This plants the seeds early that Concero (and our clients by proxy) are the right fit for their careers.
- Candidate Reengagement – Already know great talent? You shouldn’t let those connections fade.
In our experience, rehires or redeployed consultants can be a cost-effective way to place talent who you know can deliver your desired results. As long as you’ve done the work to maintain a connection, you can drastically reduce sourcing, screening, and onboarding costs.
Again, scheduling semi-regular communication is the perfect way to keep those connections warm. Celebrating their career wins on social media, asking their thoughts about ongoing challenges, or supporting their favorite causes (either through donations or volunteering) can show you’re still part of their lives (we aim to do all of this and more).
The challenge is that not every organization has a deep history of reliable and resourceful IT and accounting professionals at their disposal. Fortunately, the right staffing partner has a solid bench of trustworthy talent who we’ve seen deliver results for other clients. When they become free agents, we do the work to connect consultants with new opportunities, helping to simplify hires when you scale up.
Working with the Right Staffing Firm Keeps You Alert
When you’re trying to handle all the other elements of keeping your business stable during an economic slowdown, all these relationship-focused activities might seem secondary. However, they’re 1,000% critical to staying competitive and rebounding when the market accelerates again.
Let Concero keep you covered. We live and breathe networking. We’re the perfect people to help you build connections that last. Our people-powered approach can help you to find talent now who can help your business, right now or down the road.