What top recruiters do during a hiring freeze to stay ready

A hiring freeze is often treated like a button that puts you into reactive mode and makes everything feel like a paid vacation. 

When it's lifted, the workload hits like a thunderstorm on a sunny day. 

But is it really supposed to be that way? Absolutely not!

To reduce your workload, you can make the best use of a hiring freeze by maintaining regular candidate interactions, providing them personalized experiences, enhancing your personal brand, upskilling your existing workforce, using AI tools to predict your future hiring needs, and a lot more.

If you want to play smart during your next hiring freeze, keep reading!

What is a hiring freeze? 

Hiring freezes primarily affect the human resources team and potential candidates by increasing their workload and slowing the hiring process. 

Although they are not always a cause for concern. Hiring freezes can be used proactively by companies to save resources during an economic crisis. In some cases, certain businesses implement a hiring freeze to evaluate their talent needs more carefully, align hiring with business goals, or even restructure departments. 

What are the best moves to keep your talent pipeline warm during a hiring freeze? 

1. Engage with candidates regularly

This regular engagement can be achieved through interactive resources such as webinars, virtual meet-ups, or Q&A sessions. Some recruiters also experiment with interactive experiences like Ai roleplay(opens in a new tab), allowing candidates to simulate real-world job scenarios or recruiter conversations, keeping engagement meaningful even when hiring is paused. 

You can even host a "Future Vision Party" or a similar team-building activity to promote your company's long-term goals to your candidates. This way, not only will you find it easier to assess their cultural fitness, but you will also strengthen your brand presence in their minds.

Once your candidates become invested in your company, their likelihood of considering it when the hiring freeze ends increases.

2. Personalize your candidate communication

To keep your talent pipeline warm during a hiring freeze, avoid sending generic emails or impersonal mass messages to your candidates. 

Instead, focus more on tailoring your outreach to individual candidates. Let your messages refer to their individual skills, previous interactions, or any roles they have expressed interest in. 

Ensure your personalized communication keeps people interested in your company rather than leaving them feeling uncertain. This makes it easier for you to hire top talent once the hiring freeze ends. 

For example, instead of sending a blanket email about the hiring freeze, send an individual update that lets them know that, although hiring is on hold, you are still actively engaged in building relationships for future opportunities. 

3. Build your personal brand

You can enhance your employer brand by sharing relevant content, such as industry trend insights, best hiring practices, and career development tips for LinkedIn recruiting. Make sure the content you post for social media hiring demonstrates your brand's expertise to keep you on the radar of potential hires. 

You can also increase your visibility by actively participating in online recruitment communities. This creates opportunities for networking and relationship-building with candidates and professionals alike. 

Virtual networking events, such as recruitment conferences, are also an effective way to engage with top talent and enhance your brand name. Your professional engagement with candidates and professionals can turn into future hires once the hiring freeze ends.

4. Use AI automation and technology 

Good applicant tracking systems (ATS) or candidate relationship management systems (CRM) can automate and personalize your manual tasks at the same time. You can use them to stay connected with your top talent without overlooking any candidate profiles. 

Recruitment automation also helps maintain your pipeline health during a hiring freeze by supporting talent rediscovery and candidate nurturing campaigns. This keeps you well-organized and ready for action when hiring resumes. 

5. Upskill your existing workforce

You can upskill your existing workforce by offering internal training programs that help them develop new skills, such as leadership or technical abilities. This would make your team more effective in their current roles and better prepared for future roles. 

Such in-house recruitment increases your employee retention rates and fosters positive employee experience. This makes your company an attractive place to work for your candidates, too. 

6. Provide candidate feedback 

Providing feedback also helps you provide a good candidate experience beyond the usual recruitment process.

For example, if a candidate was not selected after their interview, you can offer suggestions, such as how they could tailor their resumes to improve their interview performance. 

Such feedback helps your candidates build trust in your organization and keeps them motivated to stay in touch for future openings. 

7. Predict future hiring needs

These reports are often based on your organization’s growth data, market conditions, and your recruitment goals. Their data gives you enough time to structure your recruitment process and avoid any potential hiring freeze.

It also acts as a proactive measure to nurture your candidates when your hiring is paused. You can identify major skill gaps, assess candidate potential, and determine how well they can perform if selected. This gives you an opening to have transparent conversations with them. 

Hiring freeze FAQs

1. How long does a hiring freeze last?

As companies usually check the financial situation or market conditions before ending a hiring freeze, these assessments can indicate when the freeze may end.

2. When will the federal hiring freeze end?

The federal hiring freeze initiated in January 2025 by President Trump has evolved into a strict workplace rule limiting companies' workforce power. 

3. Can recruiters continue to build their talent pipeline during a hiring freeze?

4. How can we measure engagement effectiveness during a hiring freeze?

• Tracking open communication channels, such as email open rates and click-through rates.
• Tracking social media engagement through the number of likes, shares, and comments on your job posts. 
• Tracking candidate sentiments and experiences through survey forms or direct feedback. 
• Tracking the absenteeism rate of your current workforce to keep their disenagagement and burnout (due to lack of new) in check. 

Summary

• Maintain regular interaction with candidates to keep them interested in your organization.
• Focus on providing personalized candidate communication.
• Enhance your personal brand for the candidates.
• Use AI automation and technology to manage a big candidate pool.
• Help your existing workforce to level up their skills.
• Provide constructive candidate feedback to shape your future hires.
• Use predictive analysis to prepare for your future hiring needs.