The New Land Of Hiring

Are you starting to hire again?  If not now, you will soon.  Proceed with caution, though.  The landscape has changed and not everything is as it once was!

"Toto, I've got a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

If you are approaching a hiring mode, allow me to read your mind:  "For the last two years," you say to yourself, "companies have been laying off people in droves, so there are loads of great people available.  All I have to do is post jobs, leverage my social networks, and candidates will flock to me.  I will have the 'pick of the litter' and -- because of the current economic realities -- I can hire them for bargain compensation."

"Step forward, Tin Man!"

Just because more people have been laid off, it doesn't make it any easier to find the right candidate for a job.

Let's say that you have a specific job opening and there are just 100 people who are qualified to do the job.  In round numbers, before the recession, 5 of  those 100 people were unemployed.  Today, after most of the layoff dust has settled, 10 of them are unemployed.  So, if you look ONLY to the unemployed as the source for your new employees, then yes, indeed, you have twice as many in the pool now -- 10 people instead of 5.

But of course that's not how you search.  You want to consider ALL the candidates, both employed and unemployed, to give you the best chance of finding the perfect fit.  And guess what?  The 90 people who are still working are going to be just as difficult to reach... In fact, they may be MORE difficult to reach these days, as economic uncertainty makes them less inclined to consider new opportunities!

"Come along, Dorothy. You don't want any of *those* apples!"

Even though social networking can raise awareness of your opportunity, the best candidates for your position may be too busy to notice your tweets, postings and blasts.  Of the non-farm workers in the US, only about 25 percent are on LinkedIn, so you are totally bypassing perhaps 75 of your 100 candidates by relying only on social media.  Moreover, your results will be skewed toward ACTIVE social networking participants.  Unless your opportunity is a job driving social networking communications or marketing, then your results will again omit some of the best candidates -- the great professionals who are not actively looking.

On top of that, your blasts may well trigger a lot of responses from hopeful but unqualified people.  Since they are members of your social network, you really need to respond to them, but that may take more time than you planned!

"Going so soon? I wouldn't hear of it. Why my little party's just beginning!"

While it is true that you may be able to hire some unemployed professionals for less than their previous salary, you may still be missing your best candidates -- the 90 who are still working are presumably still working at pre-recession wages; they are not going to take a pay cut.  And if you do hire an anxious unemployed worker at a bargain wage, they will be out the door as soon as the economy recovers and they can command market wages again.

"What would you do with a brain if you had one?"

Our recommendation, then, is both just a little self-serving AND sincerely offered.  If you are starting to hire again, increase the chances of finding the perfect fit by engaging the services of a recruiter or contract professional staffing firm.  Our job is to identify all the qualified candidates to do that job and to reach out to them to make them aware of  your opportunity.  We cover the employed and the unemployed, the social networkers and the network  agnostics, the anxious and the confident, the active job seekers and the passive candidate who is focused on their present job!