FAQS About Talent Sourcing in a Recessive Market

When facing the threat of a recession, recruiters are often left scrambling and wondering what to do next. Obviously, a recession isn’t the most promising situation, but we have faced it before, and we (likely) will need to face it again. Recruiters have several pain points that become even more exaggerated in a pending recession.

Unfortunately, this may be a timely discussion as Bloomberg Economics has predicted that there is a 75% chance a recession will occur by the end of 2023. When any disruption occurs, it’s important for industries to discuss what is changing and how to respond as they begin to navigate a different terrain.

We’ve collected three common questions recruiters ask when they have to begin recruiting during a recession. Take a look at the common themes in these questions and some actionable answers below.

When faced with a #Recession, what do #Recruiters need to know to stay afloat? Find out in the recent blog from @Visage_Jobs: Share on X

How Can We Make A Solid Plan?

First and foremost, you need to take a good look at your current process. By analyzing your current hiring process, you can pinpoint certain weaknesses. Plus, if you’ve had ideas to optimize your hiring process in the past few months without a plan to make it happen, now is the time. Before you do anything else to prepare for an impending recession, ensure your current hiring process is effective, efficient, and intuitive.

Then, you need to prioritize the positions you’re hiring for. 

• Where do you need the extra support? 
• What are the roles that you simply cannot go without, especially in a time of recession? 

Take inventory of the roles you need to recruit for and put your team’s focus and energy in that area. In the meantime, you can also lean on freelance workers or other outsourced avenues of talent.

This one is a bit more nuanced, but experts recommend resisting a freeze in your hiring, which may seem antithetical. However, it’s been reported that companies that stop hiring completely are at risk of loss of income, existing employees facing burnout, reduced quality of service or product, and high recruitment costs to replace existing (and overworked) staff.

What Should We Do With Our Current Talent Pipeline?

First, you want to keep building your talent pipeline. After all, there’s nothing more you need in a recession than a pool of talent that is qualified, skilled, and ready to be hired. Have your team focus their effort on continuing to build out a robust talent pipeline and engaging with the contacts available to you through that resource. 

Promote your employer brand on your website and via social media. It’s vital that people understand your company’s priorities, principles, and culture. By doing the work ahead of time and having an established backlog of social media posts proving your value as an employer, candidates can flock to your mediums to see why they should work for you.

#RecruitingTeams have to have a solid plan to succeed in a recession. Take a look at some of the FAQs asked by recruiters in a recession and some answers to help via @Visage_Jobs: Share on X

An additional part of this promotion would be emphasizing your stability. Obviously, in a recession, people are going to be panicked. On top of economic struggles, many people will be looking for new jobs, which is stressful in and of itself. 

Give specific examples of your stability as an organization and consider sharing parts of your plan for staying stable during the recession. Including this information during the time of recession will not only help you shine but provide comfort to potential candidates, especially if your company has endured a recession before and bounced back.

How Do We Support Our Team?

In the face of a recession, preparation is your best bet to weather the storm. Part of preparing means ensuring your team is up to date with the latest tools and processes, so you can have a knowledgeable Talent Acquisition team that’s fully optimized and working at peak performance. 

Work together to outline the application and hiring process, and have a critical eye on every stage you send your candidates through. Are there redundancies that you can remove? Is there a smooth process that clearly dictates what the candidate can expect next? Ridding yourself of any unnecessary steps can help keep you focused on the overall goal: finding and hiring the best candidate for the role. 

Hand in hand with optimizing your hiring process, you should be analyzing what works for your team and what doesn’t. This can range from how your team communicates internally to any inefficiencies found in your hiring process. Really, look into everything you do and figure out the “why” behind it. If there’s an element of your recruiting process that doesn’t serve anyone and provides little to no ROI, it’s time to let it go. 

Additionally, stay ahead on automation or trends that can mitigate your heavy lifting. You can save time and, at times, a recruiter’s sanity by having automation do the time-consuming menial tasks like scheduling interviews, sending out email outreach, and more. Take a look at the tools that are available in 2022 to make your life easier and help others along the way. 

It’s vital to protect your team during a recession and take as many precautions as possible to streamline your recruiting processes. Take the first step by expanding your sourcing and engagement capabilities with our intelligent global platform.

Recessions can be a challenging time for everyone, leading to higher levels of burnout and stress among your team. This is especially true when it comes to high-velocity hiring amid strict budgets. In a recessive market that warrants more strategy behind building talent pipelines, Visage has the bandwidth to remain laser-focused on finding top passive talent while being able to scale alongside a TA team’s needs.

To learn more about how Visage can help you to reduce the pains of recruiting in a recession that could impact your team, reach out to us for a demo.