Being busy has become a badge of honor. We complain / brag about waking up at 5 A.M. to head into the office, where we will be greeted by stacks on stacks on stacks of work that we have to tackle before the day is through. We buzz around, clutching giant-sized coffees, and constantly checking our smart phones for updates to our already overloaded schedules.

Being busy is a way of life. So much so, that we’re often unsure of how to handle it when life slows down.

Often, we just fill any downtime we may get with busy-work, and continue on our stressed-out way. But what if I told you there was a better, less stressed-out way?!

Well, for those of us whose lives are focused around recruiting, these lull times can be extremely rewarding, without all of the crazy that comes with too much busy-work. When you’re not trying to find the right candidate, or fill diversity requirements, or even fill any particular job post at all, you can focus on improving those aspects of recruiting that are often overlooked when things are busier… And getting more sleep… And reheating that 20 oz. cup of Joe that you’ve been clutching since 6 am.

Here are three helpful recruitment boosters, that employers and recruiters can focus on in the off-season, that will make life less hectic in the on-season.

Get Mobile

1 billion job searches per month are done via mobile. If a job seeker cannot apply for your jobs from their device, then 50% will abandon the application process altogether. Oh, and (well-executed) mobile recruiting has a five to ten times higher conversion rate… just sayin’!

Last time we checked, only 1 in 20 Career Sites were mobile-optimized. So, chances are, your application process isn’t yet fully mobile.

The number one thing you can do to improve your hiring odds is to get mobile with your recruiting. And seeing as you have a little time on your hands… Check out this post about using Facebook to make your application process mobile-friendly 😀

Employer Brand

When you don’t have a million things to do at once, it’s easier to sit back and look at the big picture. Employer branding benefits greatly from this removed vantage point.

Take some time to look back over the last couple months of your social media endeavors. Is your brand message consistent on all of the social networks you employ? Are you responding to your connections in a timely fashion? Does the content you share represent your brand in the way that you want it to?

Answer these questions, then come up with a couple of ways that you can improve your brand. It could be as simple as increasing the frequency of your posts (try using Hootsuite or Buffer to queue content ahead of time), or adding more diverse content. You may need to fix up your logo, ensure that your Facebook Career Page is fully branded, or rethink your overall message.

Stock Content

This one’s super simple. If you have a little extra time to spare, use that downtime to find some relevant images, write some fun, non-time sensitive posts, and put together a few employees profiles that you can trot out later; Perfect for those days when you just don’t have time to create original content. That way, you still have some stuff to share that reads like there’s a person behind the Company Facebook Page and Twitter account, instead of just posting tons and tons of links.

Not that there’s anything wrong with posting links! In fact, I highly suggest that you…

Find, and Set-Up a Content Aggregator  

I use so many; It’s kind of nuts. But content aggregators help you stay on top of relevant topics and trends in your field, as well as providing you with a steady flow of share-able content.

Feedly, Alltop, Reddit, Google Currents, and Prismatic are definitely worth checking out. You can also have a look at this article for some more in-depth tips about finding great social media content.

The downside is it can take a little while to set them up, but once you do, managing your social media content will be so much easier! Another little bonus app you may want to check out is Pocket. Pocket let’s you save, and organize, the content you find from various sites in one place. I use it all the time and highly recommend you give it a try.

All of these strategies take time to implement and are easily overlooked when you have a million positions to fill, and no time to do it in! But the next time you look up and realize that the stack of papers on your desk is unusually low, and that your retention policy has been working like a charm, you’ll know exactly what to do to make life a little easier later. You’ll thank yourself once things have returned to their wonderfully chaotic norm!