Do These 3 Things Before Hiring

We're in a recession. You saw it coming, and thankfully you've taken steps to protect yourself.

You have a tighter budget than you were expecting, but you still need to increase investment in security. According to S-RM:

And what's more, with average weekly cyber security attacks having increased across all sectors - especially Retail, Healthcare and Financial Services - you not only need to reduce wasted time, you need to reprioritise. Some of that means automation, some of that just means saying no.

And you need to do that all without you or your team burning out.

You've already got a lot on your plate. Let's get to it.

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How To Stop Burnout

There's a great review on the factors associated with burnout in team sports which suggests a number of ways to stop burnout:

✅ Be optimistic. Harvard found optimistic women live 4.4 years longer.

✅ Reduce stress. I'm sure you know that too much stress decreases performance.

✅ Increase social support, and spend more time with friends and family.

✅ Allow task-specific recovery. This means taking some time away from work, and actually having a break.

✅ Fulfil basic psychological needs. With a recession and the economic downturn, security of employment, resources, and property is important. Make sure your team know you've got their backs.

✅ Use approach-focused goal setting. In fact, instead of just focusing on goals, you may find it better to build systems in order to achieve your goals.

✅ Use an autonomy-supportive coaching style, which increases job satisfaction because we feel more responsible for the quality of our work.

You need to get this in place before you start your hiring process. With the increased time spent in interviews, your team will be under even more pressure... and going backwards is not an option.

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Don't Over-Rely on Internal Salary Benchmarks

OK, so your team are happy. Now we need to clarify the budget. If you're over-relying on internal salary benchmarks, you're failing before you start...

Internal benchmarks are always skewed.

Your team is paid below the market if they’ve stayed with you for a while... unless they've been actively searching for other opportunities...

Their job-seeker friends have high expectations of what’s achievable, may not tell the truth, or may be speculating.

Here's what to do:

Speak to a mix of clients, colleagues, candidates, consultants, and the competition.

And continue to build your data from multiple sources: job adverts, your HR team, search partners, and websites (IT Jobs Watch is good if you're in the UK).

The very real security talent gap means candidates not only feel they’re highly sought-after in the market. They know it.

If you can't compete on price: what are you offering that’s different?

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Stop Working With a Recruitment Panel for Security

So you've decided to hire, you have a realistic budget in place, and you've decided to go externally. Do you have a panel of external recruiters?

If you always end up having a "bidding war" with your competitors... it's not only because there's high demand in security. Your panel are sending candidates to you and your competition.

Fix your candidate attraction strategy.

Take time to interview your recruitment panel... they're the ones representing you.

Make sure to tell them about: your company (structure and goals), your business unit, your team, and the role.

Are they asking intelligent questions? Do they understand the role? A good recruiter will discuss how you want this "sold" to the market. When they go to market, they will give a consistent pitch.

Choose one recruiter and work exclusively. It doesn't have to be for every role... Just trial them on this one.

They will be more committed.

They will interview candidates 𝘰𝘯 the market.

They will deep dive and map candidates 𝘪𝘯 the market. Until your role is filled.

❌ Stop working with a panel of agencies. Their job is to place the candidate.

✅Work exclusively with one agency. Their job will be to fill your vacancy.

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TL; DR. If you're hiring during the recession, do this:

👉 Reduce Burnout

👉 Don't Over-Rely on Internal Salary Benchmarks

👉 Stop Working With a Recruitment Panel for Security

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Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. If you're an Employer:

→ Read our Free Guides: 10 Step Guide To Hiring A Security Specialist and 7 Steps To Fix Your Recruitment Process.

→ Download our Free eBook, “13 free tips you can use right now to hire security talent”. This is our ultimate 27-page guide to building your security team.

→ Or speak to me directly here: Book a Security Hiring Strategy Session. 

2. If you're a Candidate:

→ Read our Free Guide: How To Negotiate Salary.

→ We place security specialists across Europe. Get in touch if you are looking for another opportunity.

→ Or use our CV Rewriting Service to Fix Your CV.

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If you liked this, you may also be interested in last week’s Newsletter: How To Negotiate Salary.

Thanks for reading.