Does this mean that the scarcity of talent has become less and talent is readily available for the few openings employers have come up in this uncertain economy? To answer this question, first answer these questions:
1. With declining revenues and fewer opportunities on the horizon, is every employee’s contribution even more important to the success of your business and to justifying the role in your organization?
2. If you have made reductions in staff, have you considered performance as one of the deciding factors respecting who to let go, and released the lesser producing employees first?
If you answered yes to either question, take pause as you contemplate hiring from the pool of available “active” candidates. Likely, these candidates are “first wavers” who in a robust economy “flew under the radar” and now find themselves “redundant” in an economy that requires top talent to produce results. This doesn’t mean all unemployed or job-seeking candidates are bad or mediocre, but for many it is indeed the fact.
As the numbers of candidates on the market increases it becomes increasingly difficult to “separate the wheat from the chaffe” and choose the people that are of high quality from a group of mixed quality.
Does it make sense then to continue to employ the services of a search firm to find talent for your organization? Consider that a professional executive search firm is in constant contact with candidates and hiring managers across the segments in which they specialize. This “constant contact” is with “passive” candidates who, when facing economic instability, are more likely to entertain a new opportunity if presented by a known, trusted advisor.
The bottom line…great people are hard to find in even the best “employer's market” circumstances, and only great people are a good investment when resources are dear. An investment in a search fee pays dividends when a new employee not only joins your organization, but contributes with the high level of skill, talent and character commonly found with employed “passive” candidates who “fly under your radar.”
