What should we do if a Microsoft 365 outage stops placed workers from submitting time?

Why this matters

When Microsoft 365 goes down, Outlook, Teams and Microsoft sign-in can all stop working. Your recruiters and payroll staff may not be able to email the people you’ve placed with clients, and those placed workers may not be able to reach you.

The biggest risk is time capture. If placed workers can’t submit their hours, they get paid late and you bill late.

Firms that don’t use Microsoft can be affected too. Placed workers whose email runs on Microsoft, such as an Outlook address or a work account a client gave them, may not receive your messages.

Check what’s affected

Start with Microsoft’s service health dashboard at status.cloud.microsoft to see which services are down. Then confirm Bullhorn is loading for your team. If your team signs in to Bullhorn with a Microsoft account, check that sign-in works for everyone.

Warn placed workers about phishing

Outages draw phishing attempts, and your placed workers are about to hear from you at a new address. Tell them you will never ask for a password, bank details or a Social Security number by email. Also tell them the address on your website banner is the only backup address to trust.

Set up a backup way for placed workers to reach you

1. Create a backup Gmail address for placed workers to contact you. Turn on two-step verification and share access with your team.
2. Post the backup address in a banner at the top of your website and careers page. If your website is down too, post it on your social channels.
3. Pull your active placements from Bullhorn, then email and text your priority workers first.
4. Call that same priority group, split by recruiter, and log each call so nobody gets called twice.
5. Ask placed workers to send timecards to a dedicated inbox with a set subject line, such as “Timecard, [name], [week ending],” and process them daily.

When Microsoft 365 is back

Tell placed workers to go back to their usual contact details and timecard process, and take the website banner down. Before payroll runs, check that every timecard sent to the backup inbox has been entered. Keep the backup address on file and secured so it’s ready next time.

Get set up before you need it

You can do most of this ahead of time. Create the backup address now, save a list of priority placed workers in Bullhorn, and draft the banner, email and text so they’re ready to send.

Need a hand?

We can pull your active-placement list from Bullhorn, set up mass texting or route timecards to a backup inbox for you. Email info@broadandmadison.com.