3 Ways to Keep Your Team Motivated in Times of Uncertainty

If you feel like you’re experiencing whiplash right now, you’re not imagining it. A year ago, requisitions were piling up at such a furious pace that recruiters barely had time to breathe, let alone take a lunch break. Now, at many organizations hiring has slowed to the point that a growing number of teams are letting recruiters go. 

With so much uncertainty in the world, it can be hard to know what’s up and what’s down. “It can feel like you’re in a washing machine cycle,” says Jennifer Shappley, head of global talent acquisition at LinkedIn, “where it keeps getting turned on and off without notice.” 

Which means, of course, that keeping recruiters focused and engaged is not a slam dunk, as we underscored in our recent “Hiring in 2023” report. But earlier this year, as hiring at LinkedIn slowed down, engagement scores for Jennifer’s team actually went up. 

This didn’t happen by accident. Jennifer’s leadership team put considerable effort — and will continue to do so — into making sure their broader team felt valued and informed, so they could focus on their jobs during times of uncertainty. 

We spoke to Jennifer about how her team fostered this stability, and here’s what we learned. 

1. Engage in scenario planning

When you’re constantly reacting to the whims of the job market, it can be difficult to pause, take a breath, and plan for a variety of possibilities. But Jennifer’s leadership team recently did just that. “There’s a lot of obsession about being able to predict what’s going to happen next and then plan for that,” Jennifer says. “We decided to focus on the two or three things that could happen at a high level, and sketch out our plan for each of those.” 

The team focused on two scenarios: how they would proceed if LinkedIn returned to rapid hiring at scale and what they would do if there was a significant slowdown. 

The leadership team then broke into separate groups, each focusing on one of the two scenarios. They created a framework of questions they wanted to ask about each possible future, and took notes on what they were seeing in the present and what they had seen in hiring cycles before.They used what they learned to create scenario plans. 

The goal? “What we really want is to have scenario playbooks,” Jennifer says, “so that as hiring cycles change, we have playbooks to fall back on.”

While scenario planning is good for business, it can also have a big effect on team morale. Everyone tends to feel better when there is a plan in place. 

2. Communicate early and often 

At the same time they were working on scenario planning, LinkedIn’s recruiting leadership team communicated early and often with their team about what was happening. As soon as they saw the slowdown coming, Jennifer says, “we leaned into our director-plus and manager-plus population and were open with them about everything we knew and didn’t know, and we didn’t shy away from the tough questions.” 

They were aware from past experience that people feel more included and respected when they know what’s coming ahead of time so they leaned into over communicating.

A recent study from the Stanford business school validates this approach, showing that employees prefer managers who communicate often, even if it can be frustrating to be overloaded with information. When a boss communicates less frequently, employees tend to think their managers don’t have much empathy. But when managers communicate more, employees feel like they care.

3. Set areas of focus for the team 

The other thing Jennifer and her leadership team did was set areas they wanted to focus on. They did this at a recent offsite, where they spent time on strategic planning. Jennifer explains, “We focused on the future and what we were going to prioritize in fiscal year 2023, and how folks could be engaged.” 

Specifically, they chose to focus on diversity, operational excellence, and hiring experiences — areas LinkedIn had already been working on but wanted to drill down on even more. 

Jennifer and her leads communicated with employees about these areas of focus and the response was enthusiastic. So far, more than 300 people have expressed interest in getting involved in projects, and the talent acquisition team has been able to move more quickly on some than they expected. They even created what they call “Project Boost” to accelerate this work. 

By providing clarity on priorities, the leadership team gave their team focus on where to put their energy. 

Final thoughts

While these three strategies are helping the recruiting team stay focused and engaged, they’re also laying the groundwork for future hiring cycles. “It’s not throwaway work,” Jennifer says. “It’s helping build the foundation for us to be more strategic and efficient in the future.”

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