If you have been in business long enough and been through a recession or two, you are probably familiar with the phrase, “we need you to do more with less.” We all know what that means. You are expected to do more work, as if you didn’t have enough on your plate already, and because times are tough, we also can’t pay you more money for that extra work. Well that seems like a raw deal.
There is no department that may feel this pain more than talent acquisition (TA). As a recession looms over the economy, we’re already seeing layoffs. While I will admit that the traditional business models of the past have been flipped upside down these past years, a recession usually means higher unemployment. Higher unemployment means more applicants applying to jobs.
Unfortunately, TA teams are some of the first to see downsizing as companies slow or halt their hiring. While this seems like it makes sense to have a smaller team when hiring slows, that’s not the entire picture.
First of all you have backfills when people quit. Next you have some companies that cut their TA teams at a faster rate than their slowdown in hiring. For example you cut your TA team by 50%, but only slow your hiring by 25%. Lastly, these TA teams have way more applicants to look at because of higher unemployment.
Worst of all, when we come out of the recession these teams are not equipped to handle the massive hiring expectations that companies put on them. And now the TA teams are being blamed for not hiring fast enough.
TA teams need a game-changing solution that TRULY (not marketing jargon) enables one recruiter the ability to do the job of many. That solution needs to solve BIG problems by addressing the root causes.
Last but not least, if you are one of the companies with a hiring freeze or a slowdown in hiring, and you are kind enough to not downsize your TA team, then this is the absolute best time to implement new solutions. Get ready for the market turnaround because it will be here before you can blink. If you don’t implement new tools and processes now to address the hiring onslaught that is inevitably coming, it’s going to be too late because everyone will be too busy to solve the big problems!