Unless my calendar is broken (unlikely), we are now into the 4th quarter and unlike the government, we are not shut down, budgets are being worked out and getting approved and next year will be here before we know it.

If you are in recruiting at your company, you are in the unenviable position of having to predict the future. What will next year bring for recruiting? For one: more of the same.

This is both unfortunate and an opportunity. An opportunity for those who are going to fight to get things moving. If you are one of those, then here are a few must-do’s for the end of this year into next year.

• Consider temporary labor needs and non-employees – Are you convinced yet that temporary employees are here to stay? How effectively you manage this workforce is both a fiscal and a cultural issue for your company. If you don’t have visibility or control it’s probably worse than you think and if you do have a population of non-employee workers and you are not engaging them, you are ignoring lots of future employees.
• Stop accepting long hiring cycles – If you’ve read my other piece, I believe that we are still letting this lack-luster economy drive (or more to the point, not drive) our hiring practices. Talent is still the #1 asset of any organization and if we are going to move forward as a country or as an organization, there needs to be movement with regard to talent. If your organization is taking too long to decide, funding then un-funding positions and not providing a good experience for job candidates, now’s the time to change things. Which leads me to my next point.
• Take advantage of companies who are still waiting – There are plenty of companies doing nothing different in 2013 than they did in 2012. They are likely thinking they don’t need to do any more in 2014. But you, you’re different, right? You recognize that people are leaving companies (especially high performers), they are not happy and they don’t feel engaged. If you ever wanted to improve your hiring practices and quality of hires, now’s the time before all of those other slackers start hiring again.
• Don’t think about labels; think about what you need – There is a lot of information out there about managed staffing programs, managed services providers (MSPs), recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) and other workforce solutions. Instead of thinking that you need an MSP or you need an RPO provider, think about all of your workforce needs. How do you get talent in to your organization? Where is talent critical to success next year? Do all the departments involved in talent acquisition communicate? Define what you need before worrying about if your contingent labor program is vendor neutral or if your RPO is company-wide or just for one area.

The future is wide open. Everyone likes to say that. But really, most of us try to stay within the lines and do what we’ve always done. I think now’s the time to take recruiting to the next level, but only if you are willing to be the one to say that things need to change. If you don’t, you’re going to find 2014 is here and you’re stuck with the same recruiting resources and same results you’ve always had.

What other things are you doing to get recruiting moving at your company?