Trends & Insights
Let’s face it—hiring top talent these days is like finding a parking spot at a concert. It’s stressful, time-consuming, and just when you think you’ve found "The One", someone else swoops in and takes them. That’s why more companies—scrappy startups to corporate giants—are handing off recruiting to the pros. Here's why outsourcing your recruiting might be your next power move: 1. They Know What They’re Doing (Like, Really Know) Recruiters are the matchmakers of the working world. They eat, sleep, and breathe screening calls, resume red flags, and the fine art of the follow-up. So let them do what they do best, while you focus on growing your business. 2. Save Time. Save Money. Save Your Sanity. Between chasing references and ghosted interviews, hiring feels like a second full-time job. Outsourcing clears your plate—speeding up time-to-hire, slashing hiring costs, and preserving your team’s focus (and patience). 3. Flex Like a Hiring Ninja Need to fill one role this week and 20 next month? No problem. Outsourcing lets you scale your recruiting efforts up or down faster than you can say “urgent headcount request.” 4. Access to a Bigger (and Better) Candidate Pool Recruitment agencies have a secret weapon: massive networks. They know people. Good people. People who aren’t even looking... until the right opportunity comes along. You probably won’t find those folks by just tossing a job on LinkedIn and hoping for the best. 5. A+ Candidate Experience First impressions matter. A great recruiter knows how to keep candidates informed, engaged, and not completely ghosted halfway through the process. Even if someone doesn’t land the role, they’ll walk away thinking your company is classy—and that goodwill can go a long way. Final Thoughts: Outsourcing your recruiting isn’t admitting defeat—it’s playing smart. It's about hiring better, faster, and with fewer headaches. In today’s ever-changing job market, that kind of edge can be a game-changer. Plus, it means fewer awkward interviews with people who still list “Microsoft Word” under special skills.
There’s never a dull day in recruiting, especially when you’ve been doing it a while. I’m constantly chatting with people who are gainfully employed but thinking about switching things up — for all sorts of reasons. 2025 is already feeling like a wild ride for a lot of workers. Gen Z hasn’t really experienced a recession in their careers yet, while Millennials and Gen X are kind of exhausted, thinking, “Not this again,” after living through a few tough economic stretches already. According to the American Psychological Association’s 2025 Work in America survey, more than half of U.S. workers are seriously stressed about job security. Out of 2,017 employed adults who responded online, 54% said worrying about their workplace stability is really taking a toll on their professional and personal lives. As a business owner, it’s more important than ever to hold onto your top talent during these uncertain economic times. Losing a star employee isn’t just expensive when it comes to hiring and training someone new — it can also seriously shake up your team’s morale, their quality of work and the overall vibe of your company. Here are three defensive moves to prevent that dreaded resignation letter: 1. Don’t sugarcoat business challenges during company meetings. Being upfront builds trust. Share the big picture — where the company stands financially, including monthly, quarterly, and yearly projections, plus year-to-date results. Let your team know what steps are being taken to turn things around and bring your key people into the conversation to help brainstorm new strategies. If you’ve only been meeting quarterly, now’s the time to bump that up to monthly — keep everyone in the loop, track progress, and celebrate the wins, big or small. 2. Leadership means making sacrifices first. Executives and owners should hold off on bonuses and raises before making tough calls like cutting benefits, freezing pay, or laying people off. It goes without saying that this is not the time to roll up to the office in a new Mercedes S-Class. 3. Double-down on professional development. Staff — especially Millennials — really value opportunities like lunch-and-learns, industry events, and workshops to keep growing. Most leaders see training as an easy place to cut when budgets get tight, but that would be a bad move. Employees want to feel valued and involved. Investing in professional development, however modest, pays big dividends. Getting through tough times as a team is like strengthening iron in a fire — it’s tough, but it makes you stronger. These challenges can actually help build a more resilient, united company in the long run. While you're dealing with today’s obstacles, don’t lose sight of the bigger picture.
Hard times happen. Whether it’s a global or national crisis, workplace challenges, or personal struggles, your employees are feeling it. And when stress levels rise, how leadership responds makes all the difference. The good news? You don’t need all the answers—you just need to show up for your team in the right way. Clear communication, genuine support, and a little flexibility can go a long way in keeping morale up and productivity steady. Here’s how you can steer the ship through choppy waters to eventual smoother sailing. Keep It Real with Communication Be upfront—let your team know what’s going on, whether it’s a big crisis or a smaller challenge. A lack of transparency fuels anxiety, rumors and increases employee turnover. Keep everyone in the loop with regular updates so they know leadership has a plan. Listen! Make sure employees feel heard and that their concerns matter. Consider Q&A sessions during company meetings, encourage participation in employee surveys and support management to have one-on-one lunches with their direct reports. Take Care of Their Well-being Implement or beef up your company’s mental health resources, like counseling or wellness programs, to help manage stress. Encourage a healthy work-life balance—remind people to take breaks! Show empathy—let employees know you genuinely care about them as people, not just workers. Be Flexible & Adaptable If possible, allow flexible work hours or remote work to help employees juggle personal challenges. Recognize that everyone’s situation is different—some may need adjusted workloads or extra time off. Show Appreciation Celebrate small wins! Even in tough times, recognizing achievements keeps morale up. Give public shout-outs—sometimes, a simple “thank you” goes a long way. Consider small rewards (bonuses, gift cards, or extra time off) to show you value their hard work. The bottom line? Open communication, empathy, flexibility, and appreciation go a long way in keeping your team motivated and supported.
A well written resume can help get you in the door at a prospective employer, while a poorly written one with easily fixable mistakes can eliminate you from the position right away. You might have the perfect qualifications for the job, but if you have mistakes on your resume you might not get the chance to show those skills off. Here are 3 common mistakes that we see on resumes: 1. Spelling and grammar mistakes are the most common, and the easiest to fix. Run spell check on your resume to catch whatever you’ve missed. Read your resume out loud several times to hear how it sounds. And have others review your resume. The more eyes that view it, the better. 2. Not putting the months of employment on your resume. When you just put the years, for example 2019-2020, your potential employer does not know if you’ve been there for two months or a full year. This can be very frustrating and sometimes leads the employer to pass over your resume. 3. Not customizing your resume for the position you are applying for. We often see objectives that don’t match the job that’s being applied for. For example, if you’re applying for a job in compliance, don’t list your objective as “looking to utilize my skills in human resources”. If an employer reads that, you will be rejected right away. Also be sure to match your skills on your resume to those that the employer is looking for. But don’t fudge your skills! You never want to lie on a resume, you will be caught eventually. A little extra time to thoughtfully format and edit your resume will increase your chances of landing that desired interview!
You’ve read the first two blog posts about bad hires, think you have things locked down, made the hire of your dreams and then everything begins to go wrong. Employees aren’t motivated, the work is beginning to suffer and what was once a well-oiled machine becomes something akin to the Titanic. Time to follow up on my second post about what to do with a bad hire? Maybe. It could be the new person that you introduced into your tightly controlled world or, and I say this with all due respect: It could be you. It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone that a toxic environment can be created from the top down in an organization. Here are just a few things that you should be aware of; consider them warning signs: You’re sending out emails in all caps Staff turnover is at an all-time high Everyone shuts up when you walk into the room Enjoying the job has become just surviving the job A few of those get your heart racing a bit? It’s ok, I promise. Just take a step back and realize that everything is correctable if you catch it in time. As HR professionals we recognize that even the greatest of hires can be tainted by a work environment that is, for lack of a better word, hostile. If you find yourself inadvertently breeding one of those types of places, here are a few things that will help pull your hind parts out of the fire. Perform A Cultural Audit Translation: Now is the time to step back and evaluate the culture that you are creating. Are you aiming for professional? Competent but relaxed? Open? Closed door, hush hush and all that? You need to know what you want and be objective in reviewing what you see before you. Ask Your Employees This one is a bit tricky because you’re putting yourself on the line and your employees on the spot. Ensure that this can be done anonymously if they so choose. Find out why they work there, what makes them tick, what they like and what they detest…leave nothing in the shadows. Hire An Outside HR Rep For A Consultation (Hi!) An objective third party is likely going to have an easier time looking at your organization and recognizing challenges that need to be addressed than you are. Don’t be offended, it’s just the way of things. More often than not, employees will actually relish the chance contribute to change and respect you even more for recognizing the need for it. Be genuine in your actions and reasons and you’ll be that much closer to creating a workplace where people want to perform to the best of their ability.
Let’s imagine a world where you missed out on Talent Tap’s last blog post, “Avoiding a Bad Hire”. Such a place would be truly scary, but let’s just say that it happened and well, you’ve ended up with a less than desirable employee. Fear not! We’re here to help. The light at the end of the tunnel isn’t really an on-coming train. There is good news to be had: a bad hire is just one dimension of a business. Look at it this way, there are a myriad of business decisions that can take a nose-dive and people still stuck it out. Look at “New Coke”. That stuff was terrible and while Coke took a little heat for it, they soldiered on. You’ll do the same. Like many disaster recovery plans, the first step is to admit that you have a problem. Fall on the grenade and get it over with. Why? Numerous studies have shown that sweeping the issue under the rug is only going to result in more pain later down the line. Once you are ok with saying “I hired incorrectly” out loud, you can figure out what kind of bad hire you’re dealing with: The “No Momentum” Hire: 1) The new person starts of strong and makes an immediate positive impact…for about six months. After that, you’ll start to have an “ok” employee who falls short of initial expectations. The “Immediate Disaster” Hire: 2) The newbie proves to be a disaster from the get go for any number of reasons – personal baggage, rude, no respect for deadlines or time, or is just flat out dangerously incompetent. The “Wrong Seat On The Bus” Hire: 3) The new hire is pretty much in the wrong position in terms of competencies, experience or cultural fit. This one can be realized by both the hire and the company. Now what? Well, that’s up to you. Let’s skip over #1 for now and move right to #2. Typical wisdom is going to tell you to sever the relationship ASAP. And typical wisdom is right. Don’t let a bad hire ruin what you’ve worked to build. Harsh, but true. As for #3, this one is a bit interesting. It may very well not be the employee’s fault here. Sometimes things are just mismatched from day one. Take the time to sit down with him or her and work out if there is a better position, in terms of fit, within the company. These folks can turn into valuable employees if you take the time to align competencies with your needs. Also review your recruiting, onboarding and training processes. Do you need a more defined job description, screening/interviewing process and/or position scorecard? Onto #1 we go. This can have one of two outcomes, really. First, a conversation about expectations and goals could correct the slipping and everyone will be happy. Second, it can turn out they really just don’t want to work there anymore and in that case, it’s time for you to end it and recover what you can. How have you all handled bad hires in the past? Any techniques that have worked out for you better than others? Please, share with us in the comments below. Up next: What if it’s you and not them?