PERCEPTION says there is a surplus of candidates out there and employers can pick and choose. One client said to us recently: “Everyone’s looking and everyone’s worried about their jobs. Surely there must be loads of people who want to come and work for us at the moment.”
Actually that’s not quite right. Yes, there are lots of people looking for work, but there always were – even when freight rates were spectacular.
And, yes, there are more of them, but the key question is whether or not there is a ready supply of good people. And the truth is that there simply isn’t a surplus of them.
The irony of a recession is that fear for jobs tends to encourage people to ‘get their heads down,’ work hard and ensure that they keep the job they’ve got.
Companies that are skating on thin financial ice however, certainly do risk losing their best people. We have seen it a few times already in this recession: company lays off its less able people – company tells its best people their jobs are safe – best people think company’s going under – best people abandon what they see as a sinking ship.
The moral of the story? If you want a good one, they’ve still gotta be sold to.
