7 Work-Life Balance Tips for Recruiters

In theory, the recent layoffs in the tech industry should make it easier for recruiters to source technical talent, work less, and enjoy better work-life balance. But in reality, that’s not the case.

The recruiters who still have jobs are finding it more difficult to meet their targets and make time for work and nonwork demands.

It turns out that recruiting was disproportionately affected by the layoffs, with tech companies slashing recruiter jobs by 50 percent. At the same time, plenty of other companies are still hiring. In fact, the numbers show that there’s still intense demand across the economy, making skilled tech professionals hard to come by.

Don’t lose hope for life outside of work though. The well-documented benefits of work-life balance are more important for recruiters than ever. Here are some strategies and tips for maintaining work-life balance while still meeting the needs of candidates and hiring managers.

Fully Leverage Technology

Stanford researchers found that after employees work more than 50 hours per week, their output falls dramatically. The solution is to get more done in 40 hours—by doing less. But how?

Unless you’re fully utilizing technology to enhance the hiring process, you’re probably wasting time on low-value, low-return activities and falling behind the competition.

Using technologies, tools and apps powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning to manage your workload, organize your schedule and prioritize tasks, can help you focus on high-return activities that require interpersonal skills, candidate insights and hyper-personalized outreach noted Jan Tegze author of “Full Stack Recruiter.”

Improve Efficiency and Productivity

Volunteer to assemble a team tasked with analyzing every task and activity across the recruitment life cycle with the goal of making existing processes faster, more effective and more efficient.

For example, is it possible to reduce the number of interviews? Move toward skills-based hiring and numerical ratings? Or decrease dropouts by improving candidate engagement?

Don’t mistake activity for achievement. In short, the key to enjoying things outside of work is achieving better results in less time with less effort.

Dedicate Time to Break from Work

Research shows that taking regular breaks (anywhere from five to 60 minutes) throughout the day refreshes your brain and increases your energy, productivity and ability to focus.

But how can find time to go for a walk or take a yoga class when you need to call working candidates days, evenings or even weekends in order to reach them? Identify your “productivity prime time.”

For instance, Wendy McDougall likes to schedule three prime time call blocks on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays to speak with candidates, freeing up the rest of the week for other recruiting tasks as well as personal activities. Dedicating specific time “blocks” that yield the best results makes it easier claim your me-time by working breaks into your schedule.

Take a Team Approach

Steal a page from the software development playbook by taking a team-based approach to hiring. For instance, a lead recruiter could be responsible for filling a vacant position, but making sure other team members are able to occasionally lend a helping hand, improves work-life balance for everyone.

Examples include pairing with technical managers for sourcing or sharing the responsibility for after-hours communication with a fellow teammate. Agile recruitment, which uses hiring sprints, is another team-based approach that is gaining popularity.

Set Boundaries with Others (and Yourself)

Setting clear boundaries is crucial. For example, you could turn off your work email notifications after a certain time, avoid taking work calls during family time, or set specific working hours Tegze suggested.

However, if you find it difficult to stop working even on vacation, you may need to set boundaries with yourself as well.

Personal perfectionism is the biggest barrier to good work-life balance for over 32% of employees according to Zippia. Worse, 25% never or rarely take days off of work and 48 of employees call themselves workaholics. If you fall into any of these camps, you could likely use a reprioritization of life outside of work.

Practice Mindfulness

Another way to move towards work-life balance is through mindfulness, which can bring us back into balance by acting as a bridge between work and life.

Research shows that people who practice mindfulness techniques – such as meditation or deep breathing exercises– and remain fully engaged in what they’re doing, tend to be happier, feel less stress and think more clearly. You could practice mindfulness during your breaks or incorporate it into your daily routine.

Communicate With Your Manager

Some 67% of workers say that some aspect of their work, colleagues or corporate culture is the biggest culprit behind poor work-life balance. Solving these types of problems most likely requires a discussion with your manager. Your manager may be able to help you find ways to manage your workload or adjust your schedule to better fit your needs Tegze notes.

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