Car salesmen have hail storms. Baseball players have hitting droughts. Recruiters have the hiring freeze. There's
several reasons why a company might decide to pump the brakes on hiring, or even bring it to a screeching halt, but it doesn't mean you get to take a vacation. Here's a handful of ways you can keep recruiting even when your company isn't sending out offer letters.
Optimize!
For Recruiters, time is the most valuable asset. You're constantly sourcing, researching, scheduling calls, and talking to prospects. Any time you're spending not in the process of active recruiting hurts. As such, you may find yourself so deep in the trenches that you lose sight of the battlefield. A hiring freeze is the perfect time to take a look at your email subject lines, job postings, and other points of contact with candidates and find out what's working best.
Also, spend some time calculating higher level recruitment metrics like time to hire, quality of hire, and churn. Get some insight on how candidates are moving through the hiring funnel and what's happening once they do, and share your findings with your own team members and other team leads.
Passive Recruiting
Much is written about the importance of recruiting passive candidates, but what about being a passive recruiter? I'm talking about a recruiter not in the explicit act of trying to fill a role, yet still open to a candidate if they were a great fit. Without the added pressure of needing to fill a req, you can get to know candidates on a more personal level in terms of their goals and ambitions. Because you're company isn't making an offer, you won't come off as pushy or self-serving, and you may find candidates are more open to networking. Use the hiring freeze to establish some longer term relationships you can return to when the timing is more in your favor.
HR Scramble
Consider also taking this time to learn about higher level HR processes and the interal issues HR reps deal with. Turn your recruitment skills inward and think about whether candidates are in the best position for their skills, or if they're ready to take on bigger roles within the organization. Most recruiters spend a great deal of time courting candidates only to move on once they're on board. If you truly care about a candidate's career progression, never stop recruiting them and finding them the best fit, even if the req you filled with them is already under your belt.
