“The recovery is coming. The recovery is coming!” The prophecy of recovery may sound like a false alarm, with unemployment holding steady and the prospects of new job creation seeming to be far into the future.

However, you may be recruiting a lot sooner than you can imagine, even without a national economic recovery. Mergers and acquisitions have intensified with companies consolidating market share, taking advantage of low interest rates and rock-bottoming valuations and large cash reserves. A merger or acquisition creates a large-scale hiring event overnight. Are you ready to recruit?

There are five steps talent acquisition departments in coordination with compliance departments need to do now to be ready to act.

1. Assess your talent.
2. Assess your process.
3. Build in diversity.
4. Be compliant.
5. Design and implement the solution.

Step One: Assess Your Talent

The first step is to assess your talent. The disruptive change in the economy has changed your business. Most businesses have not redefined their organizational structure as if they started the company from scratch. Current organizations are most likely a shell of the old organization. You need to understand where the business is headed and what organizational structure is necessary to accomplish the company’s objectives.

Each person in the company needs to be evaluated for their potential to be an employee in the “New Co”—the new company, not the existing one. This means position descriptions and basic qualifications need to be defined and talent assessments conducted. The goal is to determine if you would hire each person into the new job at the new company and create a workforce plan.

The talent triage system we regularly use in mergers and acquisition talent planning is to create three buckets: A, B, and C. Bucket A represents individuals that you are certain can do the new role and would want to join the New Co. Bucket B represents the group of people that may be able to do the new role or may not decide to stay due to issues like necessary relocation, change in responsibility, or other material factors. Bucket C is the group of people who could not do the new role, you would not want in the new company, or may represent a new open position on the organizational chart.

Once you have placed everyone into the proper buckets, you can review the new organizational chart and get a clear picture of where you need to recruit. It is critical that you consider recruiting for the B and C buckets. Most organizations only actively recruit the opening or poor performing positions. Employees that fall into the B category have a high probability of not making it in the new company, so a pipeline of talent needs to be developed for the Bs as well as the obvious openings.

Step Two: Assess Your Process

The second step is to assess your talent acquisition process. Not only have you lost talent in the downturn, you probably lost knowledge and relationships. You need to understand if you have the capability to execute the new workforce plan. So, pull out the current hiring process maps and validate the maps looking for gaps and variance in execution. A simple method to audit the hiring process is to review a small number of recent hires. Follow the hire back up through the actual execution to the beginning of recruitment. Measuring actual execution and comparing it to the existing process maps gives you a good view of your recordkeeping accuracy and helps identify areas for improvement.

Once you have completed the audit, identify the necessary adjustments to the process and prioritize the opportunities for improvement. You can’t fix everything, so address the top priorities. Since hiring is a systemic process, this is the perfect time to measure what actually happens by stage and make adjustments before you are forced to review the audit in an OFCCP audit.

Step Three: Build in Diversity

The third step in preparation is to make sure you build in diversity. The pool of qualified candidates is more diverse today due to the downturn in the economy. Plus, the emphasis on veterans outreach and disability has intensified since the economy turned sour in 2008.

Diversity outreach must be part of the business plan and needs to be accountable. Senior leadership can commit to diversity as the New Co workforce plan creates the opportunity to improve diversity through better outreach and recruitment. Make sure you develop diversity reporting that provides actionable detail and involves all levels of the organizations. Failing to improve the diversity of the company as you rebuild is a missed opportunity.

Step Four: Be Compliant

The fourth step is to develop a compliant solution. Recruiters and hiring managers have a tendency to see recruitment compliance as a technicality, a barrier to hiring, or someone else’s problem. Yet, most problems that arise in audits could be resolved quickly through training, retraining, improved communication, or enforcing accountability.

Federal contractor compliance regulations have changed over the past few years and continue to change. The Internet Applicant Ruling helped establish recordkeeping requirements and the definition of an applicant. However, recordkeeping violations continue to be the number one problem in audits. Now is the time to make sure internal and third-party recruiters are following the regulations. Career websites must be accessible. Veterans outreach must be well documented with measurable results. Good faith isn’t enough; there must be documented results. Now is the time to make sure your process and execution are compliant.

Step Five: Design and Implement a Solution

You have the new workforce plan, you have updated your process, built in diversity, and you are confident you understand compliance. Now you need to execute. Step five is to design and implement a solution. What will you keep in-house and what will you outsource? It isn’t an all or nothing solution. Cost, quality, speed, capability, and ability—all must factor into your decision.

So don’t wait for the economy to recover or for a merger. Act now and you will build market share, the quality of your talent will improve, your workforce will be more diverse, and your federal compliance will improve. If you wait, you will be at a competitive disadvantage and may end up with your company being acquired instead of being the company making the acquisition.