6 Ways HR Teams Can Weather Shifts in the Job Market

The talent market has been volatile in the last few years—and there’s still plenty of uncertainty ahead. Right now, for example, we’re still in a candidate’s market, but that could shift suddenly. That uncertainty puts a lot of stress on HR teams who need to hire the right people for the right roles, no matter what the job market looks like. 

So how can your team prepare to deal with shifts in the job market, from an employer’s market to a candidate’s one and back again? Here are six ways HR can be ready for anything. 

1. Keep Your Employer Brand Strong 

A strong employer brand will serve your HR team and your company as a whole well through any shifts in the job market. But it’s all too easy to forget about the consistent effort needed to build and maintain it when employers have the upper hand. 

A positive employer brand is built through many tactics, including providing a great candidate experience, keeping employee well-being and engagement top of mind, and carefully managing your reputation. 

2. Proactively Plan for Future Growth

When your HR team is swamped with hiring and recruiting, plus engaging and retaining employees, regularly looking ahead to the future can fall by the wayside. But taking a strategic look at where your larger organization is planning to head can help you plan accordingly from a talent standpoint so you’re not caught unprepared. 

The same concept applies to scaling down as well as scaling up—are there areas where your company is planning to reduce its involvement or investment? Knowing what may come down the line next year can help you develop a strategy for your HR team in advance. 

3. Bring in Contractors and Freelancers Where Appropriate

When you need to fill roles quickly because there’s an urgent business need but want to make sure you’re not overstaffing, making use of contractors and freelancers can be a great option. You can bring on skilled professionals quickly to tackle certain projects, staff up teams, or add needed expertise without the longer timeline or added expense of hiring a full-time employee. They can’t, and shouldn’t, replace your full-time employees, of course, but they can add flexibility to help you weather shifts in the job market. 

4. Use Internal Mobility and Lateral Moves to Help With Retention

Retaining your top performers is typically top-of-mind in a candidate’s market, but it’s also critical in an employer’s market because high-performing talent has options no matter what the job market looks like. 

Thinking proactively and strategically about your internal mobility strategy has a significant benefit for employee retention and satisfaction, and also makes the need to recruit externally less pressing in any job market. The impacts of lateral moves in particular on retention are powerful, and they can help you move employees around as needed depending on what your needs and the external talent market looks like. 

5. Commit to Diverse and Inclusive Hiring and Talent Practices 

A strong commitment to diversity and inclusion in your hiring processes can help you ensure your talent pool is large enough to handle your hiring needs in a candidate’s market, as well as increase hiring equity (and being the right thing to do). Using bias-free hiring practices ensures you’re recruiting from the widest pool of candidates so you can find the perfect fit for your open roles without overlooking qualified applicants. 

6. Use Tools That Help You Scale and Flex Your Hiring 

Dealing with shifts in the job market can be a struggle for your HR team as they determine how to weather the changes while getting their work done. But the right tools and tech can help your team scale up your hiring processes efficiently and strategically. 

For example, tech like Cangrade that make the hiring process both more efficient and less biased by using tools such as structured asynchronous video interviews and pre-hire assessments can assist your team in times of high and low hiring demand alike.

See how Cangrade can make your hiring process more effective and efficient so your HR team can focus on strategic planning, resilience, and adapting to any upcoming shifts in the job market.