An eye-opening look at hiring strategies during a recession: What to expect and how to prepare yourself for it.

Do you remember the Great Recession? The hemorrhaging of American jobs accelerated at a record pace at the end of 2008, bringing the year's total job losses to 2.6 million or the highest level in more than six decades. Fast forward to today—countries around the world are feeling significant economic pressure and talks about another recession in 2020 are only getting louder. Many employees have lost their jobs and companies have withheld pay.

In contrast to the underlying financial cause of the 2008 recession, the current crisis is rooted in a health emergency. Many believe that it might cause far-reaching, unexpected economic repercussions.

However, Lou Adler, CEO and founder of The Adler Group, says that the scale of temporary unemployment and lay-offs today is a short term problem.

"In 2008, the business crashed and there was no financial support. Now we have people who do not want to hire anybody and save money. But I see it as a short term problem and not a long term one. Given this scenario, I advise recruiters that their hiring strategy has to be different. We have a different set of financial conditions and we must take a more strategic approach." — Lou Adler

Lou laid out a few pointers on the approach that recruiters and hiring managers should take during a global economic crisis, especially if they plan to hire people.

Strategy 1: Know where you stand

Not all businesses feel the same pain during economic downturns. There are some organizations that do not go out of business and are financially stable. On the other hand, there are some organizations where the business model is fundamentally challenged and they fight for survival. Hence, it is imperative to realize where you stand and take measures accordingly. If your business is done and you want to keep on growing, pause for three to six months. For those that are facing a recession for the first time, it is important to stay focused and become more agile. Your plans may have been scrapped, but the change in the economic climate can also foster new areas of opportunity.

Strategy 2: Always treat your candidates well

Hiring during a recession is a whole new ball game. Usually, it is a candidate-driven market, but now there are more job seekers than jobs available. This gives you the liberty to attract and recruit talent at lower pay, relocation, and so on. However, you must always keep in mind that this approach could cost you in the long run. The same hire you lowballed into a low salary will be the first to leave when the economy bounces back to normal.

Strategy 3: Be quick and efficient

In current times, your candidate management and selection process need to be quick and efficient. One way to do this is by not relying on resumes. A resume is not an indicator of what a person is capable of. Hence, you must ensure that an automated email goes to every candidate’s inbox when they apply for a job at your organization. The email should ask candidates to describe a system or project that they have worked on—something that they are proud of or one that they have worked on recently.

“It doesn’t make any sense to try to match a resumé to a person. However, if you look at someone's best project work, you have a good sense of what the candidate is like. There's a lot of people out of work today. I just want talented people out of work. But you cannot figure how talented a candidate is from a resume.” — Lou Adler

Strategy 4: Build a talent pipeline

Tough times need a proactive recruitment strategy, and one way to do this is by building a strong talent pipeline. Understand which roles are critical to reaching your business goals, and gain visibility on any future growth and expansion plans, or planned projects. Start by building a talent pool of internal candidates who have the potential to succeed in any key role. Identify key competencies or skills that need to be developed to ensure they're ready for the next step. Also, encourage an employee-friendly referral program.

“Recruiters must build a pipeline of top, very strong candidates for potential jobs that they'll be hiring for when the economy bounces back. They should use referrals for building networks with potential candidates. They should talk and reach out to them and build a good relationship.” — Lou Adler

Amid economic downturns, recruiters around the world are facing some obvious difficulties and struggles. When asked about what recruiters can do if they have been laid off, here’s what Lou has to say:

• Learning and upskilling should be a critical area of focus for recruiters. First, recruiters should list down their skills and figure out what’s in high demand. Secondly, they must understand and work on an approach on how they can be an expert in that field. This way, they will be in a position to eventually get a job when the economic recovery starts.
  
  “I don't mind someone who is out of work, particularly when it's not their fault. My advice is, get better, take training, do project work, volunteer for something. But don't just sit around complaining that you're not getting paid. And if you're really good during a training program, somebody will find out that you're really good and they'll hire you.” — Lou Adler

• Track what the market looks like every week. Leverage the rich repository of data that is available easily on the internet and find out about the number of relevant open job positions available in the market today.
  
  “Research. Read reports. How many open positions are there for jobs that I want to be in? And then when you start to see those jobs opening up, you know that the recovery is a month or two away. And I would probably do it for three or four different jobs in my area of expertise and my location. That would be a pretty simple way of figuring out whether the market is welcoming jobs.” — Lou Adler

Every recession has presented various challenges for everyone, making it difficult for organizations to strive and survive. However, they have also ushered an era of opportunities for new-age industries to sprout and shape consumer behavior for decades. We should remind ourselves that this too shall pass and prepare your strategy for hiring in a post-COVID world.

Let’s consider the increasingly high demand for remote positions today, and the fact that location is no longer relevant when it comes to hiring candidates. However, just as managing a remote team is slightly different from managing an in-house team, hiring one has its unique challenges too.

It’s no secret that HackerEarth has helped several organizations successfully hire top tech talent, with customer obsession at the center of it all.

To take this further, our team has worked tirelessly over the past few months on amazing features to optimize the user experience and make video interviews more fun. Here’s unveiling new product enhancements in FaceCode to help you streamline your remote hiring process.

Multiple interviewers—the wisdom of the group

Ever heard of the expression, “the wisdom of the group”? That’s the principle behind adding multiple interviewers. Adding multiple interviewers has its benefits, especially in remote interviews where any hint of biased hiring must be eliminated.

Having extra interviewers on board helps keep things impartial. Also, it brings more perspectives on the selection process and saves time. Additionally, having multiple interviewers gives some insight into how well a candidate can handle group dynamics and a variety of people.

Now, while scheduling an interview on FaceCode, you can add up to 4 more interviewers, before or during an interview, to analyze the skills of a candidate. Additionally, to provide better user experience, FaceCode has separate video feed for candidate and interviewers.

Learn more.

Evaluation parameters—hiring isn’t just a game of chance

Everyone knows the cost of a bad hire. But you know what's also pretty frustrating? Not having a clue about what went wrong in the decision-making process.

Smart hiring managers have processes in place and know that hiring isn't just a game of chance. Additionally, savvy recruiters know that conducting structured interviews is an excellent way to screen and find the best candidates. Asking a set of questions in a structured interview format helps recruiters and hiring managers collect useful information from each interviewee that they can easily compare with other candidates' responses.

To help you do just that, FaceCode now supports evaluation criteria, allowing you to conduct structured interviews. While scheduling an interview, you can manually enter evaluation criteria such as technical abilities, communication skills, problem-solving skills, etc., which act like interview scorecards.

When the interview is over, a pop-up with these criteria is shown to the interviewers, and candidates are evaluated based on a five-star rating system against each criterion. The hiring team can compile the rating for every candidate, compare rankings, and identify the strongest ones.

A collaborative online diagram board to help you seamlessly conduct system design interviews

When interviewers visualize a candidate’s thought process, it's easier to understand, streamline, and communicate with them. A great way of transforming what's in a candidate’s mind into an easily-shareable idea is through diagrams or system design interviews.

However, we all know how hard it can be to conduct system design interviews even on a video call. We heard your feedback and we have integrated draw.io that allows you to create block diagrams and architecture design in a live interview. Thus, interviewers can evaluate a developer’s system design, problem-solving, and role-specific skills.

Once an interview is over, the final diagram is saved for interviewers and admins to preview later.

Speech to text conversion—Say goodbye to distractions

Sometimes, recruiters take notes during an interview to keep track of what is being discussed. However, if recruiters rely heavily on this technique, they may get distracted, reduce their involvement in the conversation, and miss out on important things. Also, it may sometimes be difficult to understand what the participants are saying or you may come across participants who are hearing impaired.

FaceCode can automatically convert spoken words to written text during interviews. You can also turn on the Highlights feature that shows important information in the transcript, thus allowing you to focus on key parts of the conversation.

Please note: This is a premium feature.

Learn more.

What’s next?

We are excited to announce the following upcoming feature updates:

• To help interviewers pen down their thoughts during an interview, a new feature called “Notes” will be added on the interview page. This feature will allow interviewers to note down highlights of the interview without navigating from the interface or moving to a pen and paper option.
• When an interview is being set-up, there will be an option to add the candidate assessment report. The assessment report link will be available to the interviewers during the interview in the form of a button.

Try FaceCode to refine your remote hiring process. If you need any help using this feature, write to us at support@hackerearth.com. If you’re new to HackerEarth and want to create accurate coding assessments, sign up for a 14-day free trial.

We are excited to announce that HackerEarth has integrated with yet another ATS—Jobvite—to help recruiters get the best of HackerEarth Assessment. It is a comprehensive ATS that accelerates recruitment efforts with an easy-to-use interface.

HackerEarth and Jobvite: Benefits of the integration

Jobvite helps HackerEarth reach out, follow up, and maintain a connection with candidates at each step of the hiring process. Additionally, it helps recruiters and hiring managers advertise jobs, manage the recruiting process, and much more. Ready to learn how Jobvite improves the speed and quality of your talent acquisition? Let’s get started!

When integrated, you can:

Create any type of job requisition to fit your needs

You can create and add any type of job requisition to fit your business needs by tailoring attributes such as posting type, location, custom workflow, and more. You can also edit a requisition that you have created, as and when required.

Track job openings and prospective candidates

After you create a requisition, Jobvite automatically posts your job openings on the web. It allows recruiters and hiring managers to track a company's job openings as well as the candidates who apply to the company’s open positions.

Screen prospects quickly

The recruiter CRM organizes all your lead generation and sourcing results in one place. Additionally, the screening and ranking tools in Jobvite help recruiters identify the most qualified talent in a jiffy.

Map multiple HackerEarth tests to job requisition

After a new requisition is added on the Jobvite platform, you can map a test to it via the recruiter API ID. You can create and add multiple tests and invite candidates to fill a job position (there is no upper limit on the number of candidates that you can test at a time). All this can be done directly from Jobvite’s interface.

Learn more about setting up assessments in Jobvite here.

View detailed candidate reports in the workflow setup

Hiring managers love having all candidate information saved in a single, easy-to-view record, while candidates are impressed by fast and informative responses from their potential employer. After candidates have completed the test, you can view their scores and other performance data in their Jobvite profile, making the selection process hassle-free. Additionally, if a candidate is shortlisted or rejected, the status is updated automatically in both Jobvite and HackerEarth platforms.

Learn more about detailed candidate reports here.

Summing up...

Jobvite has intelligence and automation built right in, making it efficient and easy to use for both recruiters and hiring managers. Try the Jobvite integration with HackerEarth and let us know how it works for you. If you need any help using this feature, write to us at support@hackerearth.com. If you’re new to HackerEarth and want to create accurate skill-based developer assessments, sign up for a 14-day free trial.

This article was updated on 23rd March 2023.

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If you are a recruiter or hiring manager in the technical recruitment space and are wondering why mostly, men (or mostly, women) are applying for your organization’s open positions, here’s a hint for you. Look at the language used in your tech job descriptions. Chances are, the wording is more biased toward one gender than you realize.

Whether you believe it or not, language matters, and words have an impact on both genders in the workplace. These are the global numbers, and they don’t lie.





The Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits recruiters from overtly soliciting a preferred gender in their job descriptions. However, research shows gender wording in tech job ads exists, which leads to gender inequality in the workplace.

Here is a 5-step guide to creating gender-fluid tech job descriptions:

Step 1: Be mindful of your word choice

When trying to appeal to both genders in technical recruitment, avoid using gender-coded words like “wizard”, “ninja”, or “guru” and replace them with open, to-the-point words like developers or programmers (for instance). Society tends to regard these words as masculine. While these gender-coded words may make the job sound exciting, they may also dissuade women from applying.Additionally, using words such as “powerful”, “confident”, and “strong-willed” in tech job descriptions attract both men and women. Words such as “aggressive” and “pressured” discourage both genders from applying.There are various tools available today that help recruiters and hiring managers to analyze their job descriptions. These tools let them make improvements to make the language more appealing to all candidates.Textio claims that recruiters can reach a wider pool of candidates and fill jobs faster based on the language they use in their job descriptions. Applied is a tool that informs you of gender codes within your job descriptions.

P.S. You can find the full list of gender-biased wordings here.

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Recommended read: 5-point guide on how to write a job description.

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Step 2: Change your pronouns

A gender-inclusive or gender-neutral pronoun is a pronoun that does not associate a gender with individuals who are being discussed. Unfortunately, certain languages, such as English, do not have gender-neutral pronouns available.In many instances, people use “he/his” in tech job descriptions when referring to candidates in the third person. Additionally, the dichotomy of “she and he” in the English language does not leave room for other gender identities, such as transgender and genderqueer communities.Hence, when describing the tasks of the candidate in job descriptions, use “they” or “you.” For instance, “As a front-end engineer at HackerEarth, you will be responsible for collaborating with product designers, product managers, and backend engineers to deliver compelling user-facing products.”

Removing pronouns means you’re inclusive of all potential candidates. It allows you to have access to a larger pool of applicants and increase your chances of hiring the ideal person.

P.S. Here is a list of gender-neutral pronouns.

Step 3: List down additional benefits and perks

Listing down additional employee benefits in your tech job descriptions can benefit your organization in bringing a diverse set of candidates and proving your commitment to inclusion.

For example, research shows that women tend to actively seek out positions that describe an adaptable workplace culture. Positions that promoted flexible working, working from home, and additional medical benefits.Men tend to look for salary, annual leaves, and medical/dental coverage.You don’t have to include every benefit. However, mentioning a few will show candidates the great work your company is doing to boost diversity and inclusion.

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Recommended read: What’s wrong with today’s tech job descriptions?

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Step 4: Present your values and make them shine

A great way to conclude your tech job description is by providing a short overview of your company. This section is also an excellent place to describe your culture and how you promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace.Share your organization’s values, mission statement, cultural philosophy, and a link to your non-discrimination policy to attract a diverse set of applicants.

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Recommended read: What Leadership Means To Us At HackerEarth

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Step 5: Know the difference between “must-haves” and “nice to haves”

Research shows that men will apply for a job role if they meet 60% of the requirements while women are unlikely to apply for a job role unless they meet 100% of the job requirements. Hence, identify skills that are must-haves versus nice to have, and eliminate the latter.Finding the optimal length for the job requirements section of your posting is tricky. Tech job descriptions in the range of 300 to 700 words are ideal.Only when you have very specific skills/content required for the position, you’re advised to write longer tech job descriptions.

Why gender-fluid job descriptions matter

Gender-fluid job descriptions play a pivotal role in shaping a company's hiring process. These descriptions are vital for several reasons:

• Promoting Diversity and Inclusion: Gender-fluid job descriptions ensure that candidates are not deterred by gender-specific language. This inclusivity attracts a broader spectrum of talent, encouraging applications from all genders, and helps in building a diverse workplace.
• Broadening the talent pool: By avoiding gender-biased language, companies do not inadvertently alienate potential candidates. This approach results in a wider pool of applicants, increasing the chances of finding the best talent.
• Reflecting company values: Using gender-fluid language in job descriptions signals to candidates that the company values diversity and inclusivity. This can enhance the employer's brand and reputation in the job market.
• Legal compliance: In many regions, anti-discrimination laws require job descriptions to be non-discriminatory. Gender-fluid descriptions help in complying with these legal requirements, reducing the risk of legal repercussions.
• Enhancing employer branding: Companies that use gender-neutral language are often seen as progressive and forward-thinking. This can be a significant factor in attracting young, dynamic professionals who prioritize inclusivity.
• Mitigating unconscious bias: Gender-fluid job descriptions can reduce unconscious bias in the recruitment process, leading to fairer and more equitable hiring practices.
• Adapting to societal changes: As societal norms evolve, there is a growing expectation for workplaces to be inclusive. Gender-fluid job descriptions are a step towards meeting these evolving societal standards.

Gender-fluid job descriptions are not just about using neutral language; they are about creating an open, inclusive environment that welcomes all individuals. This approach benefits not just the potential employees but also the company by ensuring a diverse, talented, and dynamic workforce.

Giveaway: [Free] checklist to write gender-neutral tech job descriptions

There you have it—our 5-step guide to creating gender-fluid or gender-inclusive tech job descriptions. To take your job descriptions to the next level, download your copy of the checklist!

How they will fit in as new college graduates

How they can make an impact

Work culture

Hierarchy followed within the organization

Types of projects

Interesting market and technology trends

Build your brand:

Major organizations, such as Microsoft, Google, and Qualcomm, have been using the on-campus student ambassador program. You can appoint student ambassadors in colleges, and these students will represent your organization on their universities. Also, you can work with them to get your organization’s technical experts invited to events and conferences as speakers or for college projects. This will create a desire among students to be part of your company. Creating brand loyalty among students earlier on can prove to be of immense help and reduce the drop-off rate in the future.

Leverage social media:

The importance of a social media strategy cannot be overstated, especially if you want to get the best from university recruitments. In today’s digital world, students are bound to look at your organization’s social media page when deciding whether or not to apply for a position in your company. The best practice to follow is to post regularly about your work culture and the cool projects that you undertake to give students a sneak peek at what your company is all about. Have a repository of videos on your social media handle, detailing various aspects of your business such as perks, infrastructure, special amenities, and more.

Conduct a talk session with alumni:

If you have previously had a successful university drive, use it to your advantage. Identify a student, now working with your company, who can act as alumni and conduct sessions in colleagues you wish to recruit from. Having alumni represent your company will increase your brand appeal among students, therefore increasing your chance to have another successful university recruitment drive.

Spice up the job description:

A well-written job description can set the right expectations and help you connect better with the candidates. An extension of your brand, a job description needs to give a one- or two-line company overview, and mention the right job title, core responsibilities, minimum requirements, and compensation and benefits. During university hiring drives, candidates have to choose between multiple opportunities from various companies. This is true especially during the first few days of the university hiring season. Interesting and crisp-yet-informative job descriptions can tip the scales in your favor.

It’s 2 PM—We have shortlisted 30 candidates out of the 250 candidates who had attempted the pre-employment test and took part in the group discussion. It’s now time to meet these candidates face-to-face. Even though the entire process took us a significant amount of time, I am thankful that we have managed to shortlist a very talented pool of candidates. But wait a minute! I think some of the rockstar talent that we have shortlisted have only been exaggerating their skills. What do we do now? We have already dedicated a lot of time and resources into it.

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Related read: Benefits Of Creating A Campus Hiring Strategy In India

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This brings us to the fourth and the most important challenge faced by recruiters in university hiring:

Challenge#4: How to save time to hire without compromising on the quality of candidates?

Solutions:

• Know the industry scenario:

  Review your last 6 months of hires to determine how your organization stands against the competition. Determine the time taken by candidates to move between all stages of the recruitment process (from sourcing to rolling out the job offer). This will help you diagnose where the slowdown is happening. You can then evaluate and eliminate the time-consuming factors associated with your recruitment process.

• Have a structured recruitment process:

  Grab a piece of paper and sketch your recruitment process out, from start to finish! What are the typical steps involved in a recruitment process, what does the candidate journey look like, how long does it take to fill a position, and more. Make things visible—that’s the only way you can exactly check where to improve and save time.

• Build a candidate pipeline:

  A well-built candidate pipeline can be extremely resourceful for your team. When managed effectively, it can drastically reduce your time-to-hire because you already have a list of candidates before the search even really starts. Also, look for speedy ways to source candidates by running paid ad campaigns, using social media to identify candidates in your industry, internal referrals, browsing talent databases, etc.

• Use an ATS:

  According to studies, 75 % of recruiters now use an applicant tracking system (ATS), with 36% reporting that using an ATS has saved them time. The primary purpose of using an ATS is to filter candidates automatically based on keywords, skills, pedigree, years of experience, etc. An ATS can also give you a sense of how many days it takes on average to close a position. Additionally, with an ATS, it's easy to measure recruitment campaigns by other hiring metrics, such as the number of candidates interviewed and hired. The continual monitoring of results can also keep recruiters mindful of their recruitment methods.
• Leverage the power of recruitment tools:
  With pre-employment recruitment tools, recruiters can assess a large pool of candidates, while utilizing minimum time and resources. You can create customized tests for different roles in a matter of minutes and shortlist candidates without compromising on quality.

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Related read: 4 steps to pick the right tech recruiting software.

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A day after the university hiring drive

My boss pats my back and tells me that we have done an excellent job. I am super glad that we could overcome challenges and make some perfect hires for our organization. I am now looking forward to welcoming the new employees to the future workforce. To set me on the right path, HackerEarth has created an employee onboarding checklist to make my journey a smoother one.

Want them to help you too? Sign up for a 14-day free trial today!