Stop Multitasking to Improve Recruitment Productivity

Recruiters lead an interesting and often fast-paced work day. The recruiting life consists of phones, emails, ATS searches, LinkedIn profile checks, data entry, live conversations, and co-worker interruptions, just to name a few.

A recent article by Devora Zack, an author, consultant and coach (myonlyconnect.com), highlights a few of the myths we have failed to recognize for what they are. Zack says, “Multitasking is a myth. The brain is hard-wired to do one thing at a time. When we think we are multitasking we are actually engaged in what neuroscientists call ‘task switching’ – switching rapidly between tasks.”

So maybe we do not have all the recruiting super powers that we assumed we had. Maybe we are constantly distracted instead of multitasking recruitment superstars? Want to become more focused and less distracted? Try some of these and perhaps recruitment superstar status will take hold in your business.

• Avoid distractions. Plan things like phone calls to be done away from the computer screen. Sometimes I will stand up while I talk on the phone for both the health benefit of changing positions during a mostly sedentary day and secondly to remove email and the computer from my direct line of sight.
• Find great locations. Don’t make a call from a coffee shop, please. Yes, you are focused but you really don’t want to be “that person” that shares how important you are by making calls in public. Sometimes I will make a call from my car when stopped in a parking lot. It is safe and it is very focused. Other times I walk to an empty conference room and make a call. These all keep me focused on the call.
• Package work tasks. Gather similar tasks and do them in bunches. Email when you arrive at work and perhaps at the bottom of the hour rather than constantly. Or maybe you can manage an on-arrival, just before lunch and mid-day routine? It allows you to work on the important stuff that is not on your computer screen.
• Schedule downtime. We need time to think. Take lunch or take a walk. Set aside 15 minutes to “ponder” something new and in need of your attention. I like displayed thinking. Fifteen minutes in front of a whiteboard is like sixty minutes in front of a computer to me. Schedule time to do the things that help you break through on tough issues.

I hope you were not conducting an interview while you read this! Please share your favorite tip for recruitment productivity in the comments below.