Week in Review – May 29th

This week's Week in Review: Reports indicate Australia may enter a recession, while Europe may be seeing an increase in economic optimism; Overqualified candidates are modifying their resumes to get a job; Temp staffing agencies experience an increase in baby boomers; and, online job auctions are springing up in the face of the downturn.

1. Australian Firms’ Spending Cuts Back Recession Scenario (Reuters)
Australian business investments fell faster than expected last quarter with companies cutting spending in the face of the economic crisis. Australia’s economy shrank half a percent in the fourth quarter of 2008. Next week’s pending GDP results for the first quarter may confirm the country is, by definition of two consecutive quarterly contractions, in a recession.

2. Eurozone Economic Sentiment Improves (The Financial Times)
The European Commission reports that its “economic sentiment” index has risen two months in a row, implying that Europe is experiencing a rise in optimism, particularly in the retail sector. Germany also reported a slight rise in unemployment, although its labor agency still expects to see a sharp increase in the number of job seekers across this year and the next.

3. The New Résumé: Dumb and Dumber (Wall Street Journal)
Recruiting organizations have recently seen an increase in overqualified resumes from professionals who are willing to accept lower paying, junior positions. In order to get their foot in the door, candidates are omitting or abridging their resumes to downplay their work experiences or educational degrees.

4. Temp Giant Robert Half Welcomes Boomers (Business Week)
One temp agency, Robert Half International, is seeing a shift in its traditional workforce—from largely low- to mid- level employees to baby boomers with 15 to 20 years of experience. To capitalize on this shift, other staffing agencies are targeting baby boomers interested in temp work through organizations such as the AARP.

5.. How Much Do I Bid For That Job? (The Globe and Mail)
Online job auction sites – think of it as eBay for jobs – are becoming more prevalent across the world. Many countries, including the U.S., UK, Australia, Germany, India, and more recently Canada, have launched job auction sites that specialize in certain candidate populations and job groups, such as MBAs and tech jobs. These sites allow employers to post a job and job seekers to submit bids presenting their experience and how much they think they should be paid.

Taking the Opportunity to "Step It Up"

With recruiting teams smaller these days and hiring volumes down, it’s no surprise that many organizations are scaling back on the services they offer.

Yet, this might be just the time to expand the services your team provides. With your businesses demanding less of your team’s “core” services—i.e., bringing top talent into the organization—Recruiting faces the risk (however undeserved) of losing relevance in the eyes of the business. By expanding service offerings beyond traditional recruiting, or at least lending your recruiters to other areas in talent management, you continue to add demonstrable value to your internal clients, and build the skill sets of your recruiters in the process.

A potentially fruitful place to turn attention is toward activities that sometimes lack complete ownership within talent management—for example, succession planning and onboarding. And who better than Recruiting to take these on? For one, recruiters have relationship-building and assessment skills that can be valuable in both areas.

Basically, Recruiting has an opportunity in this environment to "step up to the plate" and take on an even more strategic role for the business. Innovative, entrepreneurial thinking from recruiting leaders can turn Recruiting away from short-term cost-cutting to growing a strategic talent management business in the long-term.

Written by: Emily Woods

Week in Review – May 22nd

This week's Week in Review: How the recession is affecting global jobs and wages; What one industry is doing to combat business volatility; And, results organizations are seeing from their Talent Management initiatives.

1. With Jobs Scarce, Age Becomes an Issue (Wall Street Journal)

A recent article in the New York Times discussed the increase in age discrimination complaints amongst the 45 and older crowd-but for younger workers in their 20s and 30s, it appears they may have just as much to fear. In an effort to avoid age-discrimination lawsuits, employers are adopting legally defensible layoffs based on tenure and "last in, first out" justifications. Labor Department statistics support this point-the unemployment rate for the 25 to 34 year old age group was 9.6% in April 2009 compared to 4.9% last year (versus 6.2% in 2009 and 3.3% in 2008 for those ages 55 and older).

2. In Japan, Secure Jobs Have a Cost (New York Times)

Recently released statistics show that Japan's economy suffered its worst contraction since 1955 this quarter. Yet, the unemployment rate in April was 4.8%--a far smaller percentage than the United States or the European Union. Policies and laws that promote lifetime employment, which originated in Japan's post-WWII economic boom, previously contributed to Japan's economic growth. But today, these same policies may not keep businesses afloat since keeping people employed means cutting wages (which could reduce consumer spending), shutting younger people out of the labor force, and increasing use of temporary labor that can be laid off more easily.

3. Figures Show Early Signs of Steep Slowdown in Wages Growth (Trading Room, Australia)

According to the Australian Associated Press, official figures in Australia signal a slowdown in wage growth. These figures are in-line with other industry indicators hinting that a reduction in hiring is under way. There is worry that if slow wage growth continues, households may reduce spending and potentially extend the recession.

4. Railway Keeps Its Furloughed at Hand (Wall Street Journal)

The U.S. rail-shipping industry learned from its workforce reduction mistakes in 2004: when their business sharply improved following the dot-com bust and 2001 terror attacks in the U.S., they were unprepared and understaffed to manage the increase in shipping volume. To ensure they have adequate staffing in place to manage possible business volatility, industry players are keeping part of their furloughed employees operating on a retainer by providing partial wages and full benefits to these workers. By doing so, the rail-shipping industry can keep the skills of its employees fresh and bring workers back in a shorter time period.

5. A Solution's Evolution (HR Executive)

While talent management strategies and technology solutions have been quite the buzz in the past several years, a recent survey by HR Executive and Knowledge Infusion shows that organizations are experiencing lackluster success in measuring talent management, and thus not receiving the enterprise support needed to advance in these areas. Organizations continue to adopt best-in-breed technology solutions (e.g., applicant tracking systems), rather than purchase a single platform that provides a suite of talent management products that may not meet all their business requirements. Another trend in talent management is fueled by interest in social collaboration-while many are interested in this area, social collaboration technology (i.e., Web 2.0) for the enterprise remains largely uncharted territory.

Interesting Article about Google

If you haven't seen it yet, check out this article in the Wall Street Journal about Google's quantitative approach to retention: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124269038041932531.html.

Written by: Donna L. Weiss

Why are candidates accepting job offers today?

Last week Sarah shared that the unemployed are not as desperate to find a job as we may have thought. But what about your most recently hired employees? Why did they accept new roles in this changing economic climate?

Some initial trends from our Q1 2009 Recruiting Executive Dashboard (RED) survey reveal that new hires are shifting their priorities when it comes to accepting employment offers. While future career opportunities and development opportunities remain the top two reasons to accept a new role, our benchmark is showing that there has been a shift in the other top employment conversion factors.

When comparing conversion factors between Q1 2008 and Q1 2009, organizational stability and employer location have entered the top 4 reasons for a new hire to accept a position. It seems the economic downturn and housing bubble are impacting us at the individual and organizational level, creating a climate where candidates are less likely to attempt a perceived risky relocation or accept a role with an organization with an unknown or shaky economic future.

These new factors in the top 4 not only show what is resonating most with candidates in 2009 but also demonstrates a need for organizations to change how they are selling the benefits of employment within their organization. Recruiters who are able to clearly communicate what distinguishes, and differentiates, their employment brand in this economic climate and into the upswing will be in a better position to attract and convert the best talent for their needs.

For resources to track, trend, and benchmark your candidate conversion factors, visit the Recruiting Executive Dashboard. Our current research initiative also focuses on attracting critical talent in an uncertain economy-stay tuned for new insights to be featured on the RR Web site.

Written by: Charlie Knuth

Week in Review – May 15th

Unemployment cyclicality still fuels uncertainty over the timing of economic recovery. That said, there are some rays of hope out there. Check out the recruiting news in this week’s Week in Review.

1. U.S. Economy: Jobless Claims Rise Amid Auto Closings (Bloomberg)
Jobless claims last week rose by 32,000 to 637,000, more than originally anticipated. This increase signals the first wave of auto-related claims as Chrysler filed for bankruptcy this week. Fallout from the auto industry will continue as dealerships across the U.S. are expected to be shuttered.

2. U.K. jobless total hits 2.2 million (BBC)
The U.K.’s Office of National Statistics (ONS) announced that the number of people unemployed rose 244,000 in the first quarter of 2009, with unemployment now at 2.2 million. The jobless rate rose from 6.7% to 7.1%. These figures are the highest that it has been since 1981.

3. As Layoffs End One Cycle, Recruiters Await Word on What Comes Next (Workforce Management)
With a wave of layoffs behind them, many recruiting organizations find themselves wondering what steps to take next. To prepare for the future, this Workforce Management article discusses how, in the short-term, recruiting organizations can poach talent from first-tiered organizations and hire recruits or develop employees who fit the needs of the current times. In the longer-term, organizations may see an increase in contingent hires, but they need to be wary of disconnects that may arise between HR and procurement.

Want more tips to help direct your recruiting team in a downturn? Check out the Roundtable’s Talent Attraction Playbook (Member only) and Cost-Conscious Recruiting (Member only) Topic Center.

4. Bright Spots on the Job Front (The Wall Street Journal)
North Dakota: The New Silicon Valley? That may be hard to picture, but U.S. unemployment is not uniform across the country. Some states in the U.S., including North Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska, and South Dakota, have been sheltered from the fallout of financial companies and able to fend off the worst of the economic downturn and lay-offs. Home to diverse industries, talent, and high-growth sectors, these states are still actively recruiting for new employees in industries where business is expanding. These states have also been insulated because they did not over-invest their job market in one industry (e.g., Detroit, New York City).

5. Stimulus to Pay for More Summer Jobs (New York Times)
New York recently announced that a part of the U.S. federal economic stimulus will go towards a program that expands the number of summer jobs available to youth and college students. As part of this program, participants not only receive minimum wage but also receive training to help prepare them for the future. Employers, which include city agencies, non-profits, and private companies, can apply and receive tax credits as part of this program.

Make the Most of Available Talent Without Tarnishing Your Employment Brand

While the labor market boasts a better volume of quality talent now compared to years past, you might be stuck with few or no open requisitions to offer choice candidates. If you feel like you’re in a Catch-22, you’re not alone. Several strategies can help you make the most of available talent and burnish your employment brand at the same time.

Even the strongest candidates have accepted that 2009 is not the year they’re going to make great leaps forward in their careers. As a recent Wall Street Journal article discusses, candidates are evaluating options beyond their qualifications to land a job. People are opting to take temporary or project-based consulting jobs and considering pay cuts and title demotions. We must be careful, however, not to cross the line when determining these candidates’ worth. When jobs become more plentiful again, we don’t want top talent remembering us as the company that drastically undervalued them.

Consider how short-term recruiting wins will affect your employment brand in the long term to identify mutually beneficial solutions. Below are two ideas to consider, along with related benefits and risks, in order to help you get high quality talent in the door while providing candidates with career enhancing opportunities:

1. Candidate takes a temporary or project-based consulting gig.

• Benefit: Hiring these candidates for a short-term assignment helps your organization secure proven performers for your most critical projects while providing development for your permanent team. This candidate continues to receive income, keeps her skills fresh, and avoids the dreaded resume gap – but also avoids attaching themselves to a lower salary. Your employment brand benefits from buzz about your continuation of at least some hiring.


• Risk: Freelance candidates may exit (too) quickly upon finding a permanent position elsewhere, and not all projects are suited for temporary hiring. Discrete projects should be well-defined and well-scoped in terms of timelines, which is not always easy in today’s relatively volatile market.

2. Candidate takes a pay cut or title demotion.

• Benefit: There is the potential to save money by getting “more talent for less.” Teams that hire under these circumstances (instead of waiting) could be well-positioned to respond to increased business volume once the economy bounces back because they will already be well-staffed with experienced talent.


• Risk: Consider this option carefully to avoid harming your employment brand in the long run. However, if you can predict which business units are likely to bounce back first, talk with the hiring manager to determine whether the candidate would be near the front of the line for a promotion once recovery begins if the new hire quickly exceeds performance expectations. Make sure to communicate the appropriate protocols and performance expectations to the candidate as well so that mutual expectations are set in advance.

Focusing on identifying mutually beneficial solutions can help you benefit from available talent in the short-run while building – not breaking – relationships with key talent for the long-run.

Written by: Elle Littlefield

How Desperate Are the Unemployed?

Rising unemployment rates around the globe continue to beg the question, “How desperate are unemployed candidates?” Organizations worry about hiring desperate candidates who may be willing to say anything to get a job and fear they will end up with a hire who’s unengaged and a poor fit for the job or the organization.

As part of our recent global labor market survey in April, the Roundtable asked unemployed respondents about their willingness to accept an offer for a job that they consider “worse” than their prior job. Despite the dire economic conditions around the globe amidst the worst recession in half a century, candidates are actually not as desperate as one might think. In fact, only 22% of unemployed respondents are likely to take a job that pays 15% less than their prior job. If the compensation penalty drops to 5%, still only one third of unemployed candidates are willing to accept that 5% pay cut. What is even more surprising is these numbers drop even further when the unemployed were faced with taking jobs that did not align with their job interests. Only 9% of respondents would be willing to take a job poorly aligned with their job interests and only 11% would be willing to work for a bad manager.It’s clear there are some candidates out there who are desperate and will take any job; however, those individuals represent a small minority of the unemployed. Recruiters can rest assured that most unemployed candidates are still ultimately looking for the “right” job and not just any job.

Written by: Sarah Andresen

Week in Review – May 8th

Economic reports released this week for April 2009 indicate that while unemployment around the world continues to rise, the pace of job loss has slowed compared to that of previous months. Read more in this week’s recruiting headlines in RR’s Week in Review.

1. Unemployment Rate Rises as Pace of Layoffs Slows (Washington Post)
While the U.S. unemployment rate rose to 8.9%, today’s U.S. Labor Department report shows the pace of job losses slowed in April compared with February and March. The total number of jobs lost fell 539,000 last month—the private-sector fell by 611,000 jobs and the government added 72,000 government jobs.

A separate report in Bloomberg yesterday showed that U.S. productivity rose 0.8% in the first quarter as companies lowered expenses by squeezing more from remaining staff. The Labor Department also saw a decrease in claims for unemployment insurance, another potential indication that job cuts may be slowing.

2. Rate of Decline in Job Market Slows (Financial Times)
In April, the UK saw a slowdown in the pace of jobs decline. However, this is only slight indication of improvement as unemployment is still quite high and additional lay-offs are expected, with some economists forecasting unemployment to reach 3 million in the next year.

3. Help Wanted: Why That Sign’s Bad (BusinessWeek)
Although the economy of late has been bleak, there are still 3 million job openings that need to be filled. While this may sound like good news, this figure indicates there may be a large skills mismatch between workers and employers. In the short-term, it will be more difficult to fill positions with hires that are good fits. A skills mismatch could potentially have long-term implications as well, such as a prolonged, high unemployment rate, talent wars to recruit the few qualified candidates (if inflation picks up), and a “learned helplessness” effect in the unemployed as a result of government programs designed to protect the jobless.

Keep in mind that as you receive more applications for fewer jobs, you will need more rigorous screening, selection, and assessment techniques (members only) to help you identify the best people for the job.

4. Bright Spot in Downturn (New York Times)
Who is hiring in this downturn? Hospitals, colleges, discount stores, restaurants, and municipal public works departments. While this article further reaffirms the skills mismatch in industries hit hard by the down economy (see the Business Week article above), it also implies that jobs are opening in certain industries as recession-proof businesses expand and backfilling (as a result of retirements and turnover) is required.

5. Outsourcing: Thriving at Home and Abroad (Business Week)
Because of rising costs in major outsourcing destinations in India and lower pay accepted by the unemployed, highly-skilled U.S.-based workers, some ‘second tier’ US cities are becoming cost effective for outsourcing staff. This allows companies to snag up US-based talent for a fraction of the cost they would have incurred only a few years ago. Eastern and Central Europe are experiencing a similar trend, as ‘Western’ European firms are looking for cheaper alternatives; they are able to turn to countries like Poland and Bulgaria for a more economic outsourcing solution.

Is “Candidate Care” a Waste of Time in a Buyer’s Market?

In a buyer’s market, we’ll be especially tempted to ignore what we’ve learned about the importance of candidate care. Paradoxically, though, buyer’s markets require us to be more vigilant than ever about maintaining it.

Across the past five years, progressive recruiting functions have put an (appropriate) premium on being “candidate centric” – a fancy term for “treating candidates like customers.” The impetus for this emphasis was obvious: in hypercompetitive talent markets, organizations couldn’t risk alienating hard-to-find (and hard-to-sign) candidates. As the saying goes, candidates view your hiring process as a reflection of your organization. And, candidates with choices will likely choose not to work for you if they don’t feel well treated during the hiring process.

All obvious, right? Well, here’s the trickier question. Now that we’re in a buyer’s market, will the emphasis on candidate care begin to decline? Or, to put it more bluntly, should our emphasis on candidate care begin to decline? After all, in most cases, the organization now has the upper hand. Why bother providing white-glove treatment when it’s unnecessary?

Admittedly, this is a straw man argument. The reasons for maintaining our emphasis on candidate care are clear and compelling. To name the most obvious: candidates won’t forget (and will spread the word about) employers who choose this moment to behave in a mercenary fashion. Put simply: we can probably get away with crummy candidate care in the short term, but we’ll pay a very heavy toll in the long-term. Whatever (small) savings we’d accrue from investing less in candidate care now would be overwhelmed by the cost of the lasting damage to our employment brands.

Still all obvious, right? Here’s what’s easy to forget: as a recent post reminded us, we’re not just recruiters and hiring managers…we’re also human beings. And, after years of desperately courting candidates, many of us will relish the opportunity to turn the tables. When one party (recruiters or hiring managers, in this case) wields disproportionate power over another, the results aren’t usually pretty. Even those of us with the most optimistic views of human nature can’t dismiss the sociological research that reveals the ugly behaviors of those who wield absolute power over others. In a phrase: “I’ve been begging and pleading with candidates for years. Now, it’s their turn.”

Of course, you probably won’t hear a fellow recruiter or hiring manager say something so brash. However, now’s the time that we all need to be especially watchful of candidate-care hygiene. Are we respectful of candidates’ time? (“It’s OK if I’m a few minutes late for the interview.”) Are we responsive to their inquires? (“I’ll call them back when it’s convenient for me.”) Do we treat them with dignity and respect during interviews? (“It’s fine to just provide cursory answers to their questions.”)

In a buyer's market, , we’ll be especially tempted to ignore what we’ve learned about candidate care. Somewhat paradoxically, then, buyer’s markets require us to be more vigilant than ever about maintaining it.

Note: Roundtable members interested in safeguarding the “candidate centricity” of their processes are encouraged to take advantage of two specific resources (both free as part of your membership): Use the Recruiting Executive Dashboard (members only) to measure new-hire views of how they were treated as candidates, and explore this organization’s approach (members only) to analyzing recruiting processes from the candidate’s point of view.

Written by: Todd Safferstone

Week in Review – May 1st

As many of us at the Roundtable have blogged about in the past several weeks, Recruiting is no longer the same as it has been during the healthy economy. This first May edition of the Week in Review features recent statistics on unemployment as well as how organizations have changed their recruiting to better adapt to the current economic climate.

1. Economists See More Job Losses, 9.8% Unemployment (USA TODAY)
A survey of economists by USA TODAY predicts that nearly one in 10 U.S. workers will be unemployed before the job market improves. The unemployment rate is expected to peak at 9.8% while others predict it will reach 10% or higher. As of March, the unemployment rate reached 8.5%.

2. EU Unemployment Hits 20 Million (BBC)
With 20 million people out of work, the unemployment rate across the European Union reached 8.3% in March. While significant variation in employment levels is noted between countries, the EU as a whole will suffer an estimated 3.5 million job loss across 2009. The unemployment rate is also expected to continue rising, with future projections placing it at 10% by the end of 2009 and as high as 13% in 2010.

3. You’re Hired, Next Year (The Economist)
Organizations are using both traditional and new approaches to weather the downturn. Aside from hiring more temporary staff to avoid spending on benefits and bringing on full time employees, some are also deferring new hire start dates, decreasing recruiting events at colleges and business schools (as Tom had blogged about yesterday), and using talent screening vendors to help them vet quality candidates faster.

4. You’re Fired, but Stay in Touch (BusinessWeek)
More companies are creating private networking Web sites where former employees can share job leads and remain in touch. Companies see alumni networking sites as an opportunity to keep in touch with professionals who might end up as business partners or as “boomerang” hires.

For more resources and information on social networks, visit the Web 2.0 for Recruiting Topic Center (members only).

5. Companies Back On the Hunt, Rev up Hiring in April (Economic Times)
Headhunters and search firms in India have seen an up tick in hiring requests in certain industries, particularly health care and pharmaceuticals, in the past weeks. These firms are seeing a particular increase in mid- to senior- level search requests primarily for backfilling roles or expanding operations in India.