Will You Be Ready to Recruit?
0 comments / Posted on 13. May, 2009 by Austin Startup in Startup 101
Our guest blogger today is Greg Garrison, the president of vrecruting – Recruiting solutions from vcfo. He has over 17 years experience in the recruiting and staffing industry, and is regularly quoted nationally as a thought-leader in employment trends. He can be reached at ggarrison@vcfo.com or 512-450-6569.
Chances are you’re not thinking much about recruiting these days. The wavering economy has certainly served as an effective appetite suppressant for most companies. The ravenous need for talent has subsided significantly over the months and now seems to be a distant thing of the past. Companies have tightened their belts a few notches to contain costs.
If you’ve slowed your recruiting efforts to a snail’s pace you’re not alone. The number of new jobs in the U.S. has trended downward since the summer of 2007. The Department of Labor reports a 38% decline in new job openings since mid 2007.
Many companies chose to not only cut back on their recruiting and hiring, but to also shed workers to get a little leaner and meaner. The statistics are eye opening. To put Q1 in perspective, if no more jobs are lost this year, 2009 would still go down as the 4th worst year for job losses since we started tracking these stats in 1939.
So, it’s no wonder you haven’t been thinking too much about recruiting. Chances are that you scrapped your recruiter/s and gutted your recruiting resources to help the bottom line. You may even speculate that if you need to hire someone, the chances of needing the help of a recruiting professional are slim. I mean, there are currently 14 million unemployed people out there….recruiting today should be like shooting fish in a barrel, right?
Wrong! The misnomer is that these labor statistics are not a good barometer for Austin’s own talent pool. Recently a predominant Austin startup worked feverishly to fill a ColdFusion position to no avail prior to soliciting the help of a professional Recruiter. Another premier startup struggled to find and land seasoned Ruby on Rails developers before investing in their recruiting efforts. The reality is that the traditional type of talent that Austin startups seek isn’t out walking the streets looking for work. Companies that think they’re going to just shoot fish in a barrel are finding that the fish are sparse. They’re also learning the hard way that they often have less fire power now when trying to slay the fish.
Less fire power? Sure, just think about it. Recruiting passive candidates in this economy is quite challenging. What do most sensible folks do in a down economy? They hunker down, reduce their discretionary spending, go out less often and they ultimately take less risk.
In today’s economy startups’ stock options are less appealing and effective at luring good talent. Job security is the big motivator now. Passive candidates want job security over anything else these days. Does your startup exude job security? If you’ve gone through any layoffs at all you’re probably not radiating job security and stability as much as you think to prospective candidates.
This troubled economy has fostered an abundance of recruiting challenges for many. The good news is that at some point we’ll soon start the upward climb out of the doom and gloom of the current economy. Many believe we’ve already started. The climb out and growth opportunities for many companies necessitates the need to recruit and hire again. The two usually go hand and hand.
It’s vital to get your recruiting plan and resources in order ahead of any looming hiring needs. The cost of making low quality or just bad hires is significant. Trying to recruit and hire on a shoestring budget and without proper resources can negatively impact the business and can even negate any cost savings the budget cuts originally generated.
It’s time to get Recruiting back on you radar!
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Posted by Austin Startup
http://www.austinstartup.com |