After years of a tight labor market, SMBs are now facing a radically changed recruitment landscape. Unemployment peaked in late spring, reaching levels unseen since the Great Depression, and the economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April alone. Though employment is now rising again, for most companies just surviving is still the goal.
But even if the focus is on cutting costs now, it’s still important to think about the future and to keep an eye on building the right team. When you do get back to hiring, you’ll find that a lot has changed.
Could This Be the Perfect Time to Hire?
Most everyone right now is focused on their 60/90/190 day cash flow. But for those with the capacity to hire, this a unique moment, with a massive influx of top talent suddenly available. After years of skills shortages, now could be the time to find the missing pieces on your team. It can also be a defensive measure—new hires could be key to helping you navigate the crisis.
Remote Working Brings More Opportunities
Here’s another reason for optimism: the switch to remote work means you can broaden your search wider than ever before. If your business, like many out there, has adapted to working from home quicker than you ever thought possible, you’re now in a position where you can hire staff without being limited to those within commuting range of the office. It’s time to target high quality applicants, wherever they are.
The Benefits of Counter-Cyclical Recruitment
With the tough economy, a lot of firms will scale back recruiting. This leaves those who can afford to hire an amazing opportunity to attract those who until recently seemed out of reach. Even if your hiring budget is limited, there’s never been a better time to be selective. Now’s the time to cast your net as wide as possible and then use technology to narrow in on the very best applicants out there.
How to Increase Your Effective Talent Pool
- Utilize Referrals: The struggles of businesses to deal with the current crisis has meant that employees who were going from strength to strength just a few months ago are now looking for work. Recruiters can take advantage of this by tapping into a great knowledge base at your fingertips: your current employees. Your first step when hiring should be to ask your current employees if they know of any high quality candidates. Make sure they know that if their recommendation end ups up being hired, they’ll be compensated.
- Recruit Proactively: Your dream candidate might be available, but they probably weren’t expecting to be looking for a job right now and they might not know where to start. It’s your job to find them—and that means recruiting activity. Reach out to top talent on LinkedIn, use an agency to expand your reach or sponsor job listings to increase visibility.
- Be Selective With Candidates: Increasing your talent pool means a broader funnel, but that doesn’t need to mean more headaches for hiring managers. You (or rather your technology) just need more filtering. With high number of applicants, you can be selective like never before, and only consider highly qualified candidates.
- If You’re Not Ready Yet: Maintain a Talent Pipeline for the Future: Even if your business isn’t in the right place to right now, there’s still a lot you can do today. You can still manage and expand your database of potential candidates. When growth does return, you’ll be better placed to find the right talent.
- Don’t Let Lockdown Stop You: Here’s the good news: recruiters don’t need to be afraid of social distancing. Every step of the recruitment process can be done remotely. This includes everything from outreach, application filtering and skills tests—right up until your chosen candidate signs (remotely) on the dotted line.
How Paycor Can Help
Paycor Recruiting was built by recruitment professionals, who understand what an Applicant Tracking System needs. To learn more about how we can help you streamline and optimize you recruiting process, take a tour of our products.