The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted many facets of HR and recruiting, but here’s one it shouldn’t affect: now is the time to be planning your recruitment strategy for 2021.
Even if hiring has slowed due to the challenging economy, your recruiting team should be very busy. Here are three things they need to be doing – what I refer to as the 3 Rs – as this tumultuous year draws to a close and a new (and hopefully better!) year approaches.
Review (Your Current Recruitment Strategy)
The first step in preparing to close out the current year and launch into the new one is to review your recruitment process. Everything should be on the table. Take a look at your internal systems, your methods for interviewing and selecting candidates, and the overall candidate experience. Determine the ROI you’re getting from the recruiting tools and vendors you contract with. And consider bigger-picture issues, such as your employer brand strategy and diversity recruiting efforts.
You can’t get where you need to go without a good roadmap. The time you invest in reviewing your existing recruiting process is essential to determining if it needs fine-tuning or an overhaul.
Realign (Your Resources to Fit Your Recruitment Strategy)
Once you’ve determined what’s working and what isn’t, it’s time to readjust and realign your resources. In so doing, your recruiting process will become more efficient and effective, and you’ll likely save money that can be allocated elsewhere.
One of the best approaches to realigning resources is to analyze your current workforce and develop a staffing forecast for the year. Determine if employees are in the right positions; whether there are skills gaps that need to be addressed; and if so, whether that should be done by increasing training or staff. And be sure to build a plan to ramp hiring quickly in case the economy improves and business booms sooner than anticipated.
Recruit (Recruit, Recruit)
Whether you’re actively hiring or not, your recruiting team should always be recruiting. Start by developing profiles on your top performers to identify where you found them and what makes them successful. Then create outreach campaigns that target the employees you want.
It’s essential to keep networking at virtual events and meet-ups, and to stay active on LinkedIn, searching for, and interacting with, potential candidates. It’s truly a process of planting seeds that will bear fruit in the future.
This is a critical time of year to review your recruitment strategy and process, realign people, tools and resources where necessary, and continue to expand your recruiting efforts. Need insight on how to make it happen, or an expert team to support your efforts? Alaant is here, and we’d love to help. Let’s talk today and help get 2021 off on the right foot! Contact us.
