All tides will rise: How hyper-personalized recruiting builds a stronger workforce

As the federal contracting environment becomes more competitive and new administration priorities take hold, the federal contract workforce is rapidly evolving. With that shift comes the need for more efficient and effective recruiting models.

“The government — and the administration — is looking for a maximum efficiency model,” said Ryan Jannise, regional vice president for Salesforce National Security (SNS).

As a result, companies are trying to right-size their government contracting workforces to better align with the administration, while at the same time other forces are at work making the landscape more complex than ever. First and foremost, a quarter of the federal civilian workforce is over 55, with a large portion of that over 60, meaning there’s likely to be a significant amount of natural turnover in the near future.

“You get all of this churn, all of this refocus and reprioritization and rationalization,” said Jannise. “Normally, you would see that happen gradually, but we are in a moment where all of this is happening at once and it’s creating a sort of shock to the system, which means there is a tremendous opportunity to quickly address the challenge, meet the new standard and set up for success.”

In this moment, it’s more important than ever that government contractors recruit and hire the right talent for their workforce, both to ensure teams are supported and to maximize efficiency and investment in the recruiting process.

“Hiring is costly in a number of ways. It’s a lot of analysis, coordination, interviews and panels,” Jannise said. “Then comes onboarding, training, knowledge transfer, and mentorship — all before someone reaches productivity.”

That process takes real time and money, not just in terms of salary and benefits of the new hire, but also the hours others invest into the recruitment, hiring and training processes. If a new hire leaves within six months, all that investment is essentially wasted, and the process must start all over again. For small companies, if that happens a few times over, repeated attrition can mean millions lost. Moreover, beyond monetary investment, high turnover has a demoralizing impact on teams left trying to keep up with a heavier workload.

“Attrition is expensive,” said Jannise.

To avoid turnover and maximize return on investment for the hiring and onboarding process, it’s important for employers to hire intelligently and strategically from the get-go. A hyper-personalized approach to recruiting can help them do just that. By engaging candidates early and maintaining meaningful, ongoing communication, government contractors can build strong relationships before the hiring process even begins. This results in a personalized strategy that not only improves hiring outcomes and candidate fit but also fosters deeper loyalty to the organization and its brand. 

“It’s like what happens when a star athlete is removed mid-game,” Jannise said. “You need to have a warm bench ready to replace the critical function with another great athlete. If you don’t have a talented replacement, the entire team suffers.”

Improved insight = better matches

So, how can government contractors actually enact hyper-personalized recruiting? The key is to tap into the technologies and resources available today to start building relationships with potential candidates early — sometimes even while they’re still in college — to maximize the potential talent pool and understanding of their capabilities and culture fit.

“How much time are you really spending with a candidate before you make a hiring decision? I don’t know if it’s even double-digit hours at the end of the day,” Jannise said. “What personalization can do in a recruiting model is increase the potential of the hire being a very good fit and reduce your attrition. It does that through personalization and several other mechanisms that lead to enhanced engagement, creating a candidate pool that you've literally had a very long relationship with before you open a requisition.”

Artificial intelligence — especially agentic AI — is key to helping companies achieve this hyper-personalized candidate engagement. By using AI to target specific skill sets, programs, and communities, companies can create a continuous, long-term engagement with potential talent and essentially develop a curated talent pool to pull from when positions become available.

“The technology enables the recruiting organization to basically put people on a different sort of path, on the journey, and then communicate in a hyper-personalized way based on where they are in their career,” said Jannise. 

By using AI to support that journey, talking to candidates about what they care about and inviting them to engage, recruiting teams can build a long-term exchange of information and a stronger connection with candidates. The result is that both candidates and employers know more about each other than just a few hours of face time and a few references.

“It means that before they walk in the door and apply for the job, they're committed to your brand, your mission, your culture, what you've done,” said Jannise. “The companies that are doing this well … they're able to be very picky, and they are so targeted, and they've got a long-standing relationship with the individual, so that their attrition rates go down. … That means that they've made an investment in the people, and these people are going to pay them dividends and be productive members of their companies.”

Ultimately, the hyper-personalized recruiting process results in lower attrition, a stronger talent pool, and higher employee engagement across the board. 

“With hyper-personalized recruiting practices, we're positioning the services we pay for for better success. People will be more loyal, they will stay longer, and they will be happier. And happier employees make for happier customer experiences,” said Jannise. “All tides will rise.”

Learn more about how Salesforce can help your organization tap into hyper-personalized recruiting practices.