The decision to ramp up or freeze hiring can be as sudden and chaotic as a fast-moving storm. As the spokesperson between your employees and the organization, it’s imperative that the Human Resource department set the tone in this perceived time of uncertainty. To do so, you must carefully communicate the state of your current workforce plan and gauge the temperature of future hiring. 

Forecast a Workforce Plan

As a staffing and workforce solutions company, we’ve found that many organizations don’t prepare a workforce planning study. This critical exercise identifies many of the hiring decisions that will drive HR strategies for the next calendar year.  

Signal a Staffing Advisory

Depending on your line of business, ramping up might be a standard cost of doing business. Whether it’s a consistent line item in your budget, or you suddenly get the call to increase headcount, there are factors that can cause an organization to hire up.

•         Seasonal hires
•         New product or service line
•         Company acquisition
•         Sales ramp up
•         New leadership

While some companies will decide to take on the task of sourcing a new candidate pool; others will call on outsourced recruiting staffing services. In this scenario, a service like project-based recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) can be a cost-effective and scalable solution to implement. That’s because RPO providers should anticipate the changes that could take place within one of their client organizations and develop contingency plans to help them adjust RPO programs with quickness and ease.

Here are a few other benefits you can expect from an RPO partnership:

•         Scalable and responsive recruiting engine
•         Improved candidate quality; especially in emerging markets
•         Reduced cycle time and hiring costs
•         Enhanced ROI on strategic HR Initiatives

Prepare for an Emergency 

From public relations crises to building evacuation drills, the root of every emergency plan is to anticpate the worst case scenario. Sometimes it is impossible for an organization to predict when and where the wind will blow. Take the example that your HR department is handed a notice to place a freeze on hiring. Where do you begin? 

If you rely on an RPO provider or shared service model, we recommend asking your RPO provider before a freeze occurs for a few examples in which they have been required to react quickly to the unexpected. See if they’re willing to provide any customer references. This should give some insight into how comfortable and experienced they are in reacting to sudden changes in needs and how well they might do so for your own organization. 

This blog was written by Alison Citti. Alison has 16 years of experience in recruiting/talent acquisition, but for the past ten years, she has been involved in all things RPO. As the VP of RPO Client Services, Alison’s focus at Yoh is on the execution and delivery of the company’s RPO services through betterment initiatives as well as developing the operational management team and internal Recruitment function. She holds a B.S. in Communications from Ohio University, and resides in Columbus, Ohio.