In a hiring freeze, an employer decides to stop hiring employees for all non-essential positions. A hiring freeze allows an employer to consolidate current employees and potentially restructure departments, to complete the work that is essential for serving the customers of the business. Even in a hiring freeze smart employers continue to strategically continue to hire in areas where skills are difficult to find and in positions that will immediately generate revenue for the business.
But, areas such as research and development, administrative support, and recruitment may need to be placed on hold for the short term.
Another component of a hiring freeze is to put filling positions that are vacated during the hiring freeze on hold if they are not deemed essential to carrying out the core business. A hiring freeze, which is normally implemented to cut business costs, or to right size the business, is an alternative to employee layoffs.
During a hiring freeze, employers should restrain their managers from adding additional staffing costs in ways chosen to get around the hiring freeze. This happens through adding temporary or contingent staff, hiring part-time employees with no benefits, and hiring interns, for example.
