3 Tips to Cultivate an ‘Always On’ Hiring Mindset

Let’s face it – business leaders have plenty of challenges to face as it is, running around filling positions at short notice shouldn’t be one of them. 

Fortunately, it doesn’t have to be. How? A simple shift in your thought process. We’ll let you in on an industry secret… Cultivate an ‘always on’ hiring mindset. 

There’s a myriad of stellar reasons for doing this — staying two steps ahead of the competition, maintaining team motivation, boosting organisational culture, but most importantly for growing businesses, it means never having to compromise on a hire. 

By consistently keeping recruitment at the forefront of your mind, you can cultivate leads and nurture relationships to ensure that potential candidates are readily available — prior to the hiring process. It means that when the time comes to get someone in that seat, and quickly, there’s a handful of leads who are already engaged in the business to progress.

To spearhead this ‘always on’ mindset, consider the following:

1. Zig while others are Zagging: If you’re in a hiring freeze, it’s pretty likely your competition is too. Don’t be tempted to follow the crowd and let outbound stop. This is the perfect time to up your volume as everybody else is shutting down. Of course, you’ll need to change your approach — focus on relationship building and passive style outreach. Be open to having casual conversations, and nurture for when your company undergoes a hiring spree again, so you can be ready to press the go button instantly when things inevitably pick up again.

2. Weaponise your TA Team: The earlier you can involve your TA team in discussions around hiring planning (even if they are likely to change), the more effective they will be at being able to hit the ground running when you’re ready to pull the trigger on new roles. This will give them the ability to source potential candidates earlier, ultimately saving you time and $ on those crucial hires.

3. Involve your Hiring Managers: Challenge the team to be one of the most supportive, forward-thinking, and future focused employers on the block. Encourage your HMs to be involved in the process, at the end of the day they’re likely to get the best result. We consistently see that those who use a peer to peer boost their responses by over 33%.

Business leaders should be living and breathing an ‘always on’ hiring mindset. Activating this mindset means that you can rest assured knowing that you won’t have to compromise on your most valuable asset — your team.

As a leader, it also builds a sense of trust within your culture. Your team should be entrusted with engaging with potential hires and getting involved with the hiring process!

Remember, this ‘always on’ mindset starts with action. Make connections, get your team on board, and start leveraging technology to support your future hiring efforts.