Tips for Recruiting in a Recession
Hire or Fire to Weather Tough Times?
It’s the question at the top of every business owner’s mind: How can I make sure my business survives if the economy weakens? Experts say that for companies seeking to thrive during economic hard times, it’s important to cut back, but not everywhere. And, when it comes to an organization’s most valuable asset – its workforce – employers face difficult realities about balancing the need for human capital and the pressures of the bottom line. A recent article on Workforce.com phrased the dilemma well: “Are people an investment to be managed or expenses to be reduced?”
History shows us that organizations that prioritize for and invest in human capital not only have a better chance of weathering a recession but also often come out ahead. In fact, experts also say that in an effort to beat the looming recruiting crunch, depending on your industry, now just may be the time for your organization to staff up as the labor pool opens. So, whether your organization is seeking to ramp up your staff or maintain a consistent level of employees, here are some tips for recruiting during a recession.
Look across age brackets. There’s a lot of talk about Millennials entering the workforce, and college campuses are a great place to recruit new hires. But, a largely untapped resource is mature workers. Many have dipped their toes into retirement and now want or need to return to work. Others may simply be looking for a career change. Experts suggest considering experienced mature workers looking for a career change for entry-level positions.
Don’t penalize the pink slip. In a steady economy, taking into consideration certain factors such as an applicant being fired or out of work can be a good way to determine if they would be a good candidate to consider. But this isn’t necessarily the case during a recession. Many employers, in efforts to salvage the bottom line, indiscriminately fire qualified, experienced employees or even full departments, at no fault of the workers in question. So carefully consider all qualified applicants instead of automatically disqualifying some due to a gap on their résumés.
Recruit from within. When faced with the realities of the bottom line, many organizations will be forced to cut staff – somewhere. But other parts of the company may see a continual or even increased need for staff. That’s why recruiting from within your organization can be a great way to not only sustain company culture, but to cut down on training time and have individuals who can quickly get up-to-speed as well. Another idea is to seek internal referrals from current employees to widen your pool of candidates.
Try non-traditional approaches. Many organizations are saving time and money by using resources such as virtual career fairs, job boards, and social networking sites such as MySpace.com or Facebook.com. These can yield a high number of great candidates, but be aware that they can also be time-intensive to use. Weigh the costs and benefits of this approach against your traditional recruiting techniques.
Use a staffing company to your advantage. In economic hard times, more companies turn to a staffing company to hire temporary or permanent employees. That’s because employers realize that to maximize profits, sometimes it’s best to hire another organization to focus on recruiting and interviewing so that all hands can be on deck internally to focus on ramping up sales, customer service, and operations. And increasing the number of temporary positions within your organization can help the bottom line as you adapt staff levels according to workflow, season, or demand.
Though times may be tough, they could also be a defining moment in your organization’s history, culture, and economic success. Organizations differ in all but one thing: they all depend on their people to reach success. The mark of a world-class organization is that it always recognizes and values its most precious asset – its employees.
Make Sure Your Workplace is Misery Free
Understand the Three Signs Every Employer Needs to Know
Everyone knows what a miserable job is: you wake up dreading going to work, feel miserable while you’re there, have a sour attitude even when you’re at home, and constantly dream of leaving. The thing is, miserable jobs aren’t isolated to one industry or field; they’re not found in one section of the country or at one type of organization; they’re not unique to one level of job title or pay. Miserable jobs, in fact, aren’t even related to the actual work required by the job itself says Patrick Lencioni, author of The Three Signs of a Miserable Job. They know no limits, have no boundaries, and can pop up anywhere, even at places you’d least expect.
While most companies aren’t in business solely to ensure the happiness of employees, it’s important to stamp out misery at work – for many reasons. For one, productivity decreases when employees are miserable and unfulfilled. That misery affects a surprising array of people – other employees, clients, customers, friends, family, even strangers. And misery at work can go beyond simply ruining someone’s attitude for a few moments; it can deeply impact an individual’s psychological and emotional health. Lencioni notes that it’s hard to gauge exactly how much damage miserable work inflicts on people.
But, there’s good news: there is a meaningful, cost-free way to reduce job misery. So, what can you do to make sure your workplace is doing all it can to combat the miserable job? In Three Signs, Lencioni uncovers three things you need to be aware of to avoid having miserable jobs – and miserable people – plague your workplace.
1) Anonymity. No matter what the job or circumstance, people need to be seen, heard, and acknowledged at work. It’s impossible to be fulfilled otherwise. That’s because, as Lencioni points out, “All human beings need to be understood and appreciated for their unique qualities by someone in a position of authority.”
2) Irrelevance. Much like people need to be visible as individuals, they also need to know that the work they are doing is important to someone. Work that’s done in a vacuum, without context, with no connection to the big picture, and without appreciation, is not fulfilling for anyone for long. Even if they would never say it to you, the most cynical of employees, Lencioni says, still need to know that their work matters, even if only to their boss.
3) Immeasurement. As the author puts it, “Employees need to be able to gauge their progress and level of contribution for themselves.” That means that each employee needs to be equipped with the tools, processes, and permission of the organization to discover and track for themselves their own personal success. Otherwise, if there is no gauge for success – or failure, for that matter – employees lose their motivation.
These signs are easy enough to understand. So, equipped with this knowledge, what can you do to make sure these problems aren’t making your workforce – or even one person on your team – miserable? This series, The Three Signs, will help you more deeply understand and know how to deal with these signs when they arise in your organization. To learn about addressing the first sign, anonymity in the workplace, check out next month’s article in this series.
Heat Illness Prevention
Reducing the Risk of Heat-Related Problems
With summer temperatures on the rise, the risk of heat-related illnesses is rising as well. Heat illness is a serious medical condition that occurs when the body is unable to cool itself and incapable of dealing with heat. The following guidelines include simple steps employers can take to ensure the safety of their workers during high temperatures.
Recognize the Dangers
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, employers must realize the hazards heat exposure present to workers, both indoors and outdoors. Indoor employees working in areas such as unconditioned warehouses and kitchens producing high temperatures are just as vulnerable to heat risks as outdoor employees like construction workers working under the hot sun. Heat illness can result from a combination of factors including humidity, temperature, age, weight, fitness level, direct radiant heat, airflow, and workload. As the Canadian Center for Occupational Health and Safety notes, even in relatively mild temperatures, an intense workload coupled with other risk factors can become
a major concern.
Prevent Dehydration
Provide all employees with access to fresh, cool water. Make one quart of water per hour available to each employee. If proper plumbing isn’t available, frequently replenish the water supply needs. In order to replace the water lost to sweat in an eight-hour workday, an employee at risk of heat illness should drink two or more gallons of water. Supervisors should also encourage workers to consume water throughout the day, because dehydration can occur even when a worker doesn’t feel thirsty.
Provide Cooling Areas
Make cooling areas readily available to all employees needing relief from heat exposure. As a preventative measure, give any worker who believes they need time to cool at least five minutes in a properly ventilated, shaded area. Umbrellas, canopies, trees, or other temporary structures that provide adequate shade are a good option.
Allow Time to Adjust
A person’s body needs gradual adjustment to working in the heat – this is known as acclimatization. It’s very important to give workers time to adjust when they aren’t used to working in direct heat, returning to a hot work environment after a long absence, or working during the start of a heat wave. Gradually transition workers to their full workload over a period of four to 10 days, limiting the total hours of heat exposure per day.
Create a Policy
Develop and implement a standardized heat illness prevention policy. In it, outline the practices in place for prevention, how to respond to heat illness symptoms, how to contact emergency services, and procedures for acclimatization. Enforcing a heat illness prevention policy can help prevent injuries and help protect your company from liability.
Train Supervisors and Employees
By providing heat illness training to all workers and supervisors, you can help them protect themselves and their co-workers from injury. Include an overview of your heat illness prevention policy, including preventative measures. Heat illness victims are twice as likely to die if their supervisor had no heat illness training compared to victims with trained supervisors, according to a study by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.
Prevention is the best defense against heat illness. To protect your workforce, make sure your policies are updated and all employees are equipped with the knowledge how to avoid heat risks.
Exchange is a publication of Express Services, Inc., Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Copyright 2008.