“How”™s your business? How”™s the market? How are you doing?”
This is the opening line we in the staffing agency business get every time we turn around. With unemployment almost at double digits and at a 25-year high, of course the market and every staffing business are horrible. The real question and what everyone is searching for answers to is: What are you going to do about it? I am in this profession for the long haul. I have too much time and intellectual capital to roll over and pack it in.
Here are the facts:
There are too many people unemployed and not enough jobs.
For every 100 resumes we saw a year ago, we now have 300. Ninety percent of the resumes are written poorly. Candidates don”™t interview well and often lack marketable skills. Yes, there is a better crop of unemployed candidates, but you still have to be a highly skilled recruiter to find them in the masses.
So, what are we in the staffing business to do and what advice do I have for corporate America? Take a deep breath, stay healthy, work harder, faster and gather some patience. Bottom line: Deal with it.
I have never been more confident than I am today that organizations need the services of reputable staffing firms more than ever. Make it a priority to determine who you want your organization to partner with. Which staffing firm should represent your company and your opportunity to the best people on or off the market so that you can spend time growing and/or maintaining your business during these tough times? As with many businesses, staffing experience counts. Experienced recruiters know who the reliable top producers are; they know the people who can get it done. They know which people will lead you down a negative path and bring your business down to negative numbers.
Now is not the time to be frugal when it comes to recruiting the very best talent. Massage your budgets; get the best service provider to help you make sense of the talent pool.
Your company is only as good as the people who work for it. If you are fortunate enough to have a recruiter on staff devoted to just the recruiting process and nothing but the recruiting process, then mazel tov! However, be warned, pay them well and buy them breakfast, lunch and dinner because they are going to be working long, hard hours sifting through the thousands of resumes and listening to more than their share of stories of despair.
Placing an ad out on the networking circuit is a lot like being a piece of flesh out in the open waters infested with sharks fighting for every last morsel. Is this dramatic? Yes. Is it the truth? Yes. Every shark that doesn”™t get that piece of meat will come back angrier and more motivated for the next opportunity. It is called survival.
Organizations that prefer to go it alone and not hire a recruiter have to be smart, think ahead and crunch the numbers. Is casting a wide net really the best use of your time? Do your line managers know how to recruit in today”™s economy?
Time is money and recruiting the very best talent to get you out of this crisis will come from working with the very best recruiting firms.
Maureen Mackey is a principal and co-founder of Mackey & Guasco Staffing Associates L.L.C. in Darien, Conn. Reach her at maureen@mackeyandguasco.com.
