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Is Your Recruiting Department behind the Eight Ball?

By Bryan Johanson, April 14, 2009

The expression "behind the eight ball" refers to a difficult position from which escape is highly unlikely.  In pool it's not good to be behind the eight ball because hitting the eight ball first is an automatic loss.  Most (not all) recruiting departments are in heavy reaction mode, struggling to keep their heads above water, or out of the line of fire until the economic storm recedes.  Most are not investing in the future nor preparing for the turnaround.  This mentality is a sure recipe for being well behind the eight ball as this recession clears.  There is good news.  Most economists agree that we are at or near the bottom of this economic downturn.

Read more articles by this author.

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Have you personally noticed a change in the air?  People seem to be breathing a little easier.  Maybe it's just springtime setting in, or perhaps corporate leaders are realizing that the paralysis that marked the first three months of 2009 can't continue if companies are going to survive and eventually thrive in the future.  We at The Adler Group have also seen a few encouraging signs:

• One company I just visited recently had 117 requisitions approved for the first quarter, all of which were put on hold until further notice.  Two weeks ago they got the go-ahead to move forward to hire 45 new people.  The rationale – hiring these people now is critical to meeting the company's goals in 2009! 
• "Nearly half of the US workers who were laid off in the last three months have found a new job despite the gloomy predictions.  Forty-one percent of workers laid off from full-time jobs in the US over the last three months have found new full-time permanent positions, while another eight percent found part-time work," according to a survey conducted by research firm Harris Interactive for job portal CareerBuilder.com.
• The overall labor market is another story.  Labor markets tend to be a lagging economic indicator, meaning that the economy will recover before unemployment rates decline.  (See below for estimates from a real economist on when to expect the labor markets to improve.)

If you have been too afraid to open the paper or listen to the news, fear no more.  Now is the time to stick your head out of your fox hole at work and survey the situation.  What do you see?  Are you among the many who:

• Just laid off all or most of your recruiters?
• Expect hiring managers to pick up the recruiting responsibilities with no direction or training?
• Reduced your recruiting budget to nearly zero?
• Threw your workforce plan out the window?
• Are still in paralysis from a hiring freeze?
• Can't get management to make a decision, even on positions that they already approved?

Excellent – now is the time to implement a plan to rebuild your recruiting capabilities.  It's a clean slate.  Your remaining recruiting team now has time to prepare for the inevitable upturn, and your ability to attract top talent will differentiate you and your team from the rest.   We'd love to help.  If you are interested in reviewing our 10-step recovery plan for corporate recruiting departments, just email us at info@adlerconcepts.com.  Now for some real economic analysis!

Real Economic Predictions – from an expert
For me the best speaker at the recent ERE conference in San Diego was Economist PhD Robert Genetski (http://classicalprinciples.com/).  His analysis and conclusions were understandable and well supported.  Below are my notes from his keynote address at ERE.  He believes the following to be true with respect to the currently economic situation:

1. The problems in the financial community began with the housing markets.  Too many houses were being built and the prices were inflated.  The value of the financial assets associated with housing fell sharply.
2. Errors in government policies spread the problems in the housing market to other areas of the economy.
3. Our government still hasn't recognized the problems they have created for the economy.

So. . .
When will the economy recover? 

• Six to nine months after the central banks put more money into the economy the turnaround will start.  That means that we can expect to see some positive movement sometime this summer.
• What can we expect?  There will be a massive increase in spending.  Historically, the faster the economy declines, the sharper the economic recovery.  Fasten your seat belts – it's going to be a bumpy ride back to the top.
• When will the labor markets recover?  Since the labor market is a lagging indicator and businesses want to make sure that the turnaround is real before making human capital decisions, we won't see significant recovery in the labor markets until early 2010.
• What's the longer term outlook?  The workforce demographics are changing, which means that even with the economic downturn it will still be hard to hire skilled labor.  We should also prepare to experience some heavy inflation within two years. 

Don't get behind the eight ball
There you have it.  As the recovery happens, you can't afford to be behind.  If recruiting departments wait to rebuild until the recovery is in full swing, other companies will have already taken the best talent.  Now is the time to start the restructuring process.  We're already seeing a loosening of the hiring freezes and an openness to recruit for key positions.  That's only the beginning.  Pipelining initiatives and upgrades to the career sections of corporate websites, including talent hubs and micro sites, would be great investments.  How about implementing a CRM system exclusively for prospecting prime candidates?  If you are working on these initiatives now, when the turnaround starts in earnest you'll be ready.  What are you working on?  Do you know where your next 25, 50, or 100 hires are going to come from?  Do you already know their names?  Are you nurturing those relationships now so when those requisitions open up, you'll be ready with at least three great candidates for each position?  Or are you waiting for the uptick only to find that your primary objective is unobtainable because you no longer have the knowledge, resources, and systems to attract top talent?  Some have estimated that it takes over a year to rebuild a talent acquisition function from scratch.  My advice – start now!

Happy recruiting,
Bryan Johanson