Staffing Articles

There have been many signals lately that the worst of this economic maelstrom is really behind us. While we’re all glad to hear that the recovery is at work, it is also clear that it’s going to take quite some time before unemployment levels get back to normal in America. The result of having so many Americans unemployed or under-employed is that staffing departments around the country have more applicants than ever before to each of their open positions. If dealt with correctly, this huge influx of candidates can enable a company to significantly increase the quality of their workforce.

The New Year is here and for the past few months we’ve continued to have little bursts of news that indicate the worst is most likely behind us as an economy. While nearly every expert agrees that this recovery will happen in fits and starts and over a longer period of time, many companies are beginning to make plans for future growth once again.

The employer/employee relationship is evolving at a rapid pace. PEOs take over responsibility for administering entire workforces and lease employees back to business owners. Third party consulting firms fill the requirements of positions traditionally handled by in-house experts in Accounting, IT, and HR. Temporary and contract workers are expected to make up an increasing percentage of the average employer's staff in coming years.

Downsizing and layoffs have become a fact of life for many companies across the U.S. over the last couple of years. This doesn’t mean the “survival” trend will continue indefinitely. One of the sure signs of recovery for an individual organization is the resumption of hiring. The next step toward actually thriving occurs when the workforce begins expanding due to the creation of new positions and opportunities.

As a recruiting professional in HR, you know that good job candidates prepare feverishly for their interview with you. However, they aren’t just studying a list of questions you might ask them. The smart ones are also compiling a set of queries they expect you to answer. This means you need to be prepared to respond with accurate information on a number of topics.

Human resources executives are constantly setting goals to push their companies forward and bring strategy and focus to their teams. However, it’s far too common for these high level strategy goals to get pushed aside by the HR department’s most common cycle: focus on recruitment, focus on retention and then repeat. Human resources leaders understand the value and importance of breaking this cycle.

Now don’t get too excited. Before I start talking about today’s topic I should clearly state that while there have been some exciting market improvements lately we still have a lot of long hard work in front of us before we can start breaking out the term “recovery”. That being said, it does seem like the worst is behind us. So while it isn’t time to pop the champagne, it is definitely time to take stock of how prepared your company is to take advantage of the turnaround once it arrives.

We all know the key to effective recruiting is to make sure you hire the right candidate. The question we’re always asking ourselves is “how can I be sure that this candidate is going to be a perfect match for the job?”

Many organizations have volunteerism or community activism as integral parts of their mission statement. It isn’t difficult to determine that helping support volunteer causes is a great way for your company to give back for some of its success. It’s also a good lesson on the importance of ethics and involvement. What may surprise you is that volunteering can also prove to have an incredibly effective business ROI.

We’re starting to see some serious stabilization in the marketplace these days.  The Dow hit a 13 month high, first time filers for unemployment are down month over month as well as in the rolling average, and companies all over are starting to release funds to begin projects that have been on the backburner during the downturn. Nobody wants to be the company that waits too long to consider growth again and misses out on part of the recovery.

So, should your company consider beginning to hire again? Maybe, maybe not.