Now is the perfect time for these 5 ‘back burner’ projects, according to recruiters

Now is the perfect time for these 5 ‘back burner’ projects, according to recruiters

April 17, 2020
Industry News

You know those projects which you’ve been meaning to get around to for months and months? Now could be the perfect time to double-down on getting them done.

For businesses with less demand for hiring, it’s becoming increasingly more difficult to continue ‘business as usual’. Now might be the best time to make progress with projects which might have fallen down your to-do lists. 

Many of the recruiters who responded to our recent pulse survey said that they were using this time to re-focus on outstanding projects. Getting them sorted now will make everything easier when we get back to normal. 

Here are some of the projects our survey found that recruiters are now focusing on:

Cleaning up the database

The timing is perfect to do a bit of spring cleaning in your candidate database. In the rush of fast-paced recruitment, it can be easy to let candidate records pile up, forgetting to remove old vacancies and keeping messy, out of date lists.

If looking through your cluttered recruitment CRM fills you with a sense of dread and guilt, now is the time to get it fixed. Clear out old data, better organise existing information and make sure the software is working properly. By the end, you’ll have a CRM which ‘sparks joy’ every time you use it.

Get to know your data better

You’ve probably been collecting a growing collection of data points and insights over time as you’ve been recruiting, and you’re probably not making good use of them. But when analysed and interpreted, all of that data is a goldmine!

Take some time to really get stuck in and see what you can learn. Find out how people are using your recruitment website, how candidates interact with your hiring process and compare how different candidate acquisition channels are performing.


Some key metrics to investigate include:

  • Cost per hire
  • Time to hire
  • Quality of hire
  • Candidate source
  • Application rates
  • Conversion rates


Market research and candidate personas

Creating a ‘target persona’ can be really helpful, especially if you regularly recruit for specific or niche roles. Making sure you have a really clear understanding of your ideal candidates and their behaviours will help you make better-informed decisions about how to engage with them.

In addition to all the usual research categories (this post from Social Talent is a good place to start), you should also consider how what’s going on currently is impacting candidates too. The effects of coronavirus are likely to impact your candidates’ behaviour for months to come, so be sure to consider this as part of your persona now.



Improve recruitment processes

Some survey respondents told us that they were using this time to make changes and improvements to their recruitment processes.

This involves addressing any bottlenecks or inefficiencies which exist. By implementing new technology or building out new processes for your team, you could end up saving a lot of time and effort in the future.

So whether it’s putting together email templates for messages you send frequently, creating resources to help candidates, or setting up a new process document for your team, now is a great time to get stuck in.



Improve your candidate experience

We know how important a good candidate experience is, so using extra time to make improvements could be time well spent!

Working out what could be changed or improved in your candidate experience usually starts by working out your target candidate personas and looking at your data (so if you’ve already done projects 2 and 3, you’ve got a head start!).

To avoid getting involved in a huge project which you won’t have the capacity to finish when things return to normal, instead try and identify some quick wins that will have the largest impact. 

Could you pull together some information to help candidates understand what to expect at their interview? Could you add some extra information to your careers page? Identify gaps and find some simple ways to address them.


It’s great to see from the survey results that recruitment teams are using this time to get stuck into these projects which are otherwise often overlooked.

The full results from the Recruitment Pulse Survey are available to view here – including information about the impact coronavirus has already had on their operations and the measures they’re taking to combat further damage.


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