Should you lay off your recruiters?
My LinkedIn feed is full of posts about layoffs from a wide variety of companies recently. In many cases, I see either most or all of talent acquisition departments being part of the layoff. This concerns me not only for my colleagues who are affected but also for the health of the organizations making these decisions. For those facing layoffs, here are a few ways to re-think your Talent Acquisition staff and recruiters..
They know your workforce. Recruiters can shift into a re-deployment mode and help move talent around to critical need areas.
You will need to recruit. Even if you are cutting back, there are likely critical areas that will be untouched and some that might be growing. Even if that’s not the case, some of those “key people” retained post layoff will leave due to the uncertainty of their future with the organization.
The recruiter skill set is a mix of sales, marketing, researching, and others. Recruiters can often provide value in other areas of the company until hiring ramps up again.
By retaining the skilled recruiters in your workforce, you are poised to get back to hiring with a knowledgeable team as quickly as the business turns.