A friend recently asked me, “You work in recruitment for the government, but you’re under a hiring freeze… What do you do all day?”
I resisted the urge to say something snarky like, “Recruiters aren’t bears – we don’t hibernate and wait for the freeze to thaw.”
The business of recruitment isn’t a 100-meter dash, it’s a long distance run. At IRS, we’re looking at the hiring freeze as a time to condition and train. That way, we’re in the best possible shape when the freeze is lifted.
Our workout routine includes:
- Evaluating the effectiveness of current initiatives
- Developing strategies to improve targeted outreach
- Maintaining an active presence online and in the social media world
- Networking and staying informed about what’s on the minds of job seekers
- Attending webinars and training sessions
What does your organization do to keep employees motivated and active during slow periods?
Recruitment 411 is the official blog of the IRS Recruitment Office.
Move around? 🙂
Seriously, what if the freeze presented an opportunity to cross-train folks, creating rotations of function to (a) give them a greater sense of the rest of the organization, (b) do something new and potentially interesting, (c) build multi-disciplinary teams, and (d) achieve knowledge capture / succession planning…among other possible benefits to the individual and organization?