Webinar Recap: Recession-Proofing Your Talent Acquisition Team
Welcome back for another recap from our Future of Talent Acquisition webinar series! This month our panel of talent acquisition leaders discussed strategies and challenges of managing talent acquisition (TA) teams during slow hiring periods.
It would be difficult to find a company not affected by layoffs during 2022, and amidst conditions such as financial distress, vague business demands, project holds, and layoffs, business leaders have had to consider eliminating or drastically reducing their TA teams. If you missed the conversation on how to handle these challenges, we’ve got the highlights for you here.
First, a huge thank you goes out to our expert panelists:
Crystal Serrato - Director, Technical Recruiting @ Samsara
Gregg Rossi - Senior Director - Head of Global Talent Acquisition @ Mindbody
Kelly Burlage - Vice President, Global Talent Acquisition @ Lineage Logistics
Now for what you came for …
Our panel discussed how layoffs and restructuring could make sense on a spreadsheet, but because it is impossible to turn candidate pipelines on and off like a faucet, companies potentially face significant challenges on this path:
Difficulty attracting top talent: A recruiting function that is under-resourced may not be able to effectively identify, attract, and engage top talent. This can make it difficult for the organization to fill strategic open positions with highly qualified candidates, and negatively impact the overall performance of the team or department.
Longer time-to-fill: Without a dedicated recruiting function, it may take longer to fill open positions. This can lead to delays in completing projects and can also increase the workload on current employees tasked with covering the responsibilities of the open position.
Increased turnover: If an organization is not effectively recruiting top talent, it may end up hiring employees who are not well-suited for the role. This can lead to increased turnover, as these employees may not be able to perform the job as expected or may not be able to adapt to the organization's culture.
Risk of legal compliance issues: A lack of dedicated recruiting resources can also increase the risk of legal compliance issues, such as failure to adhere to equal opportunity laws or other regulations.
Brand reputation damage: Negative feedback from neglected applicants, current employees, or even competitors about poor recruiting practices can damage the brand reputation of a company in the long term.
Panel members shared that when talent acquisition costs are being hyper-scrutinized, gathering and using data is the key to engaging leaders in a longer-view conversation. TA data helps leaders solidify the links between business goals and TA work (past/present/future), highlight the long-term, negative impacts of eliminating a TA team during a slowdown, and reinforce the need to maintain a strong, lean TA team through highs and lows.
“... interviewer training, improving company job descriptions and updating employer value propositions”
The group also outlined several strategies for maximizing the value of TA teams during slow hiring periods, including career progression coaching for internal employees, resume reviews, interviewer training, improving company job descriptions, and updating employer value propositions; all emphasized the importance of recruiters developing and diversifying their skillsets, improving project management skills, and building capabilities in reporting and analytics.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, the average talent acquisition leader’s challenge in a slowdown is to ensure that team members continue to add value to an organization, keep developing, and are ready in advance when needed!
You can watch the full webinar replay here.