Finding the Hidden Talent During a Recession – January 2009
I recently overheard one of my colleagues speaking to a client
regarding some candidates. He said, “I know you prefer to see
candidates who are employed, but I have two excellent people
who were employed as of one month ago. One had her Canadian
office close with no notice and the other’s company has been
sold and the layoffs have started. …Yes, I understand. I will
tell them they’re not qualified.”
Around the water cooler this consultant explained how his client just would not budge regarding his requirement that a candidate be employed. “He just wants to see those people who are working,” she said. Sadly, we have too many of these conversations with our clients.
Our firm focuses on the 39% of the people who are employed but would make a move if it were the right one but we recognize that during economic downturns those 39% are not the only quality candidates. In fact, sometimes during our search process some gems are uncovered, especially during times like these. These are the highly skilled and successful professionals that are “currently between jobs” or are “doing some consultant work” and their number is growing everyday. We cannot watch CBC or read a newspaper without hearing about another company or entire industry, such as the auto industry, that is teetering on the brink of collapse which contributes to the growing number of quality unemployed people.
US companies are retrenching and closing their Canadian offices. Companies that are not performing well are put on the auction block. The demand for some services and products disappear when the economy weakens. No demand means the need for people to sell, service and repair your products lessens or even disappears totally. Once sold the new owners usually clean house.
It makes good business sense to take advantage of this rare opportunity because it goes against the trend of the shrinking talent pool left by the retiring baby boomer generation. Over the next several years quality candidates will be harder to find but if you look now, they may be easier to catch. Companies looking for good talent owe it to themselves to consider this often overlooked group. Unfortunately though, this is the group that some clients have shut the door on. We can hear it in our clients’ voices when we mention that Ben or Sylvia is currently on the market and is available to start right away. We have to remind our clients that there are many legitimate reasons why someone can become unemployed.
Once you have identified an unemployed candidate as the person with the right skills and track record for your opportunity, this person will still need to be wooed, though not as intensely. Even for these candidates it is important to identify what really motivates them because the best ones will likely be interviewing with other companies using the same strategy. You potentially won’t have to pay as much as it would cost to buy top talent from your competitors but that does not mean their motives are very different. They still need to earn a livelihood and if you want to keep them for the long-term; vacation time, bonuses and benefits should still be important parts of the package. Most want to commit to an interesting opportunity, one that will have a challenge today and in the future.
If you want to be in the right position to succeed through the recession and proliferate in the future you will need to tap into all of your resources in order to see the right people at least on paper.
As difficult as it sounds, you should avoid the temptation to dismiss any resume of an unemployed professional. A quick scan will tell you whether this person has the experience you are looking for. That 10-second scan is all that is necessary to cover this group. Whether your new employee has been enticed away from his or her company of five, 10 or more years or is someone who has been searching for a few months, your chances of hiring the right candidate are better when all possible areas have been included in the search.
If you include the unemployed group into all of your recruiting assignments, as we do, then you will not miss out on covering the entire available talent pool. You should not be surprised at the high quality of some people in the unemployed sector.
So start looking for those hidden gems. They are out there.
Larry Kurmis, Senior Consultant