Bill Ayers
President & CEO
Tel: 212.889.7788
bill.ayers@ayers.com
The numbers tell us that the employment marketplace is still on a roller coaster. Government statistics show that payrolls grew by 274,000 jobs in April—100,000 more than economists predicted—but only 78,000 in May, the smallest monthly increase since August 2003. The jobless rate dipped but planned layoffs jumped 42 percent in May. At the same time, surveys by the National Association of Colleges and Employers indicate that 13 percent more 2005 college graduates can expect to be hired.
Far more interesting than these dry numbers is what we see in day-to-day interaction with real people. Things continue to be active on both sides of the Atlantic for our Staffing Services Group. Our Career Transitions practice has seen a higher percentage of landings in the past few months than in the past few years. Senior HR executives—long-time friends—who are in the job market themselves report going on upward of seven interviews and continuing into round two across the board. When was the last time that happened?
We are seeing the emergence of several trends that will have a major impact on our constituencies.
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• Employers are beginning to view candidates in a different way. In a significant number of cases, our candidates are finding a major change between the specs of the positions they applied for and what they actually find at their interviews. It’s as if they were interviewing for a different job. I think this may be occurring, at least in part, because many companies have a breadth of needs but are still under constraint. So when hiring managers recognize a talented candidate who seems like a good fit with the organization, they look beyond the specific position to find ways to apply that asset.
Obviously, this changes things from the candidate’s perspective. A year ago, an applicant would not have gone to an interview without a specific agenda. If applying for a particular job is like shooting at a target, the advice was, "Don’t bother unless you can hit the bull’s eye. You’ll waste everyone’s time." Now that’s changed to, "If you can hit the target anywhere, go for it!" As a result, candidates are becoming more aggressive about setting up interviews.
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• Voluntary turnover is on the increase. Given all the new opportunities, employees—freed from the constraints of economic reality—are heading into the marketplace. We’re hearing it from our candidates, who increasingly face competition on this front as well as from unemployed peers, and from the HR community as well.
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These shifts require us to prepare our candidates in a different way. We’re emphasizing a more sophisticated approach to interviewing that involves better preparation and a more flexible style. Candidates need to know as much as possible about the organization and its business from both the corporate and operating unit perspectives. They need to understand what the workflow is and who all the stakeholders are. They need to view themselves and what they bring to the table in a broader context, because chances are they’re going to have to field questions that go well beyond the job specs. We’re also placing more emphasis on networking skills. The candidate who can gain first-hand knowledge of the target organization, how the hiring process works, and where the real needs are—or who has an ally on the inside who knows his or her capabilities—will be ahead of the game.
These marketplace shifts also have major implications for HR. As I mentioned in my last letter, it’s time to refocus on retention and talent management, if you haven’t already done so.
As the market heats up and you begin hiring, it’s important to remember that an effective retention strategy starts with selection. It’s far easier to hold onto people if they’re the right people in the first place. That’s why taking the time to properly vet candidates to ensure the right fit—in terms of culture as well as skills, experience, and personality—has always been a crucial part of our focus in Staffing Services.
Once you’ve invested in hiring the right talent, you need to protect that investment through onboarding. The cost of a failed hire has been estimated at anywhere from 14 to 28 times base compensation.
Your best defense as the battle for talent heats up will be a strong offense: a retention strategy based on talent management. It’s the key to keeping your best assets from becoming someone else’s. Right now, we’re seeing too many organizations that are relying on counteroffers in default of a comprehensive strategy. Talent management has to be a continuous process of identifying employees with potential and creating development plans to help them achieve that potential.
As always, The Ayers Group is prepared to help you meet the breadth of your needs, whether in recruiting, outplacement, IT or HR interim staffing, or organizational development.
