What does it mean when the economy is tightening? By Gregory
Recently I have been inundated by Talent who have been retrenched, many of whom are top-performers in their field and were aggressively recruited by their current enterprise. The fact that they were top performers in competitor enterprises or vendor companies was the very reason that they were ‘head hunted’ in the first place. Now faced with difficult times the enterprise leans toward cost cutting and the first area many look to are Talent costs. One colleague went through 9, yes 9(!), interviews before being offered an exciting role, with more scope and remuneration, only to find that he was first out the door. Doesn’t make a lot of sense! The bad will these enterprises are creating will reverberate for years to come and when the markets shift and the economy improves no one will want to work with them.

The time is now, for a new level of engagement with Talent, where creative solutions can take care of the needs of all concerned. Look at Google and EBay, yes they have made redundancies (the crazy USA reporting season) but they staggered them over 5 months and gave their Talent the choice of when to leave and extended their Health Insurance cover for an extra 4 months. Some companies are job sharing and looking for ways to capitalise on the knowledge and experience tied up in their Talent resources. Talent is not a cost centre like many companies believe BUT a revenue centre — business after all is about people and people do the deals with each other.

[ta!ent scout] is keen to work with Talent and businesses to help identify strategies to make the most of the tightening economy. The truth is that the explosive wealth and growth by some business after the recessions are over is right now in the planning stage, planning for what’s to come not what is here now.