With the tech industry suffering from massive waves of layoffs and the hiring freeze, we found ourselves between the companies that doubled their headcount after the pandemic as the business boomed to meet client demand and thus, felt pressured by the trouble spilled over the tech recruitment market.
This article discusses how we capitalized on the hiring slowdown, what recruiters do during a hiring freeze, and how we turned it into an L&D opportunity.
Seizing the moment to retain talent
Despite widely expected grim predictions, we decided to gain an advantage in the race to retain the talent we fought so hard to attract.
We seized the moment in this hiring slowdown by providing our team members with the opportunity to level up in their skills in order to future-proof their careers and our organization alike.
It was essential for us from the very beginning to make sure our talent team feels they are valued and that they have a voice in Tribe’s future.
While leading a remote team may be more challenging, especially through a bumpy ride for those in the industry, it does not have to result in team dissatisfaction.
Turning the situation around
With the hiring volume decreasing, it was clear to us that we should capitalize on this downtime to develop key skills and adaptability to new and evolving workplace challenges.
Thus, pivoting our learning and development strategy was imperative to help us come out of this crisis stronger.
We at Tribe have a strong existing skill set so leveraging the current assets as learning content came rather naturally.
Let’s dive right in
Here we’ll cover some L&D and other initiatives we started during this global hiring slowdown.
We introduced the Innovation lab in June, a format to crowdsource ideas and solutions to business-critical topics at Tribe.
When we came up with the format, we had a great opportunity to give our team members a chance to share their ideas, learn new skills and expand their expertise in the roles they already hold and even roles they haven’t tackled yet, all while setting ourselves up for success in the long-run.
The goal of the Innovation Lab is to help Tribe win, solve current business challenges with more brain power, and foster innovation and cross-functional collaboration.
After collective brainstorming, there were a few topics of importance for Tribe that emerged and that was set as projects with short and long-term goals.
On top of each of the projects, we assigned dedicated teams and project leads with the aim of materializing the topics into workshops, training sessions, peer coaching, and stretch assignments.
In addition, team members were allocated to each of the projects according to existing expertise and passion as a way to cultivate them further.
Project leads were assigned either based on the awareness they raised on a specific topic or chosen by each of the teams.
Getting the chance to work in this setting allowed the further connection between peers, eliminated the intimidation factor, and fostered a more relaxed learning and development experience.
Here’s what we worked on:
1. Exceeding clients expectations
As an embedded recruitment consultancy, the core of Tribe consists of our clients who trust us to carry out their recruitment process and efforts.
When it comes to appeasing them, there’s no substitute for high-quality work and a cooperative approach. In order to distinguish ourselves in ways that go beyond the essentials in a highly competitive market and especially in a challenging industry situation, we created a project aimed at creating maximum stakeholder value.
When developing the project, we focused on the different problems and needs our clients are facing and how we can effectively respond to them using our industry and market knowledge as well as offering a service aimed to genuinely benefit the client and candidate side alike.
One of our key strategies for being able to go the extra mile was taking the time to truly understand our client’s pain points and goals, and how we can work with them to help them alleviate areas of concern.
Our recruitment consultants had clear and customized recruitment strategies.
These strategies focused on four areas: snowballing conversion rates, driving efficiencies across recruitment processes, developing high-impact sourcing systems, and adapting to the engagement motivations of candidates.
By focusing on these areas, our recruitment consultants could unleash their potential, drive higher hiring value, and create better client engagement.
Their ultimate goal was to outperform the market and reinforce the hallmark of excellence.
2. Upskilling our talent team
Training and development opportunities that convey the power to deepen our talent team skill set and expertise were the focal points for us when coming up with the Innovation Lab.
We understood what our team members’ needs are and we started upskilling them in order to create a strong pipeline of talent and keep them in-house.
Development certifications are one strategy we engaged in order to demonstrate our talent team can perform bigger and better, boosting their value to our clients and the workforce in general.
One of the traits shared by our talent team members is our commitment to excel in our professions by acquiring new and updated industry knowledge.
Specialized coursework grants up-to-date tools and technical strategies that benefit the successful performance of projects, allowing our talent team to manage aspects of their work more effectively.
Through advanced training and knowledge gain, team members are developing the abilities and confidence necessary to drive innovation, while we are laying the foundations for Tribe to implement a more sophisticated working environment.
3. Enhancing our online presence
At Tribe we always took pride in our talent value proposition, our team members’ achievements, and knowledge, so why not spread the word about all this in the online sphere?
Through the Innovation Lab, we employed a digital marketing strategy in order to connect with relevant audiences and networks in the industry, engage in discussions, and establish stronger relationships with candidates and clients alike.
Our main aim was to deliver an exclusive brand experience by providing insights into our company’s working ways, sharing expert advice, and creating trustworthy relationships with companies and individuals in the industry.
We wanted to gain a competitive edge in the crowded marketplace.
We decided to bet on staying true to our brand and culture. We did this by showcasing our talent team as brand ambassadors, lifting the veil on our services, and leveraging the in-house knowledge.
We wanted to give back to the industry that taught us so much so far.
You can check out what we produced so far here.
A win-win situation
The development style conveyed through the Innovation Lab spurred learning by allowing team members to be their best selves in different areas of business and enhance their skill sets in various professional areas.
The Innovation Lab also facilitated the leadership team with front-row visibility into team members’ perspectives on the company and their performance, so that they can assess and ensure continuous employee development further.
While all the developed projects inside the Innovation Lab fill in the gaps of internal learning, the development conveyed through them looks to the future and growth of our team members and the company as a whole.
Find out more about our learning-oriented talent team and how we can aid your hiring efforts by getting in touch with us today.
