Automationtechies Agrees: Now is an Unprecedented Opportunity to Hire Great Talent
While COVID-19 has reshaped every aspect of our lives in a very short time, it also presents concern and uncertainty for how companies and industries will be after this crisis. As employers, we should look back at previous economic hard times and learn from the company leaders who embraced the unique opportunities those times offered. What did those strategic leaders do to come out stronger and more successful on the other side?
When we look to the past, one of the most important opportunities to come from economic hardship is the chance to hire talented people who are having trouble keeping jobs elsewhere.
During challenging times, many companies are forced to downsize and lay off workers they otherwise would have kept. Some industries and sectors completely collapse. These unfortunate circumstances present an unprecedented surplus of highly talented people looking for employment for a short period of time. The pool of high-skilled talent suddenly swells, and the ability to add productivity and growth to one’s own company can be seized like never before.
At Automationtechies we have experienced this firsthand; our recruiting clients have been hiring and we added two new members to our own team. That’s why it was exciting to see the Harvard Business Review reiterate that Now is an Unprecedented Opportunity to Hire Great Talent.
Their article also highlights the founders of Hewlett-Packard, a well-known American electronics company, who took this same approach to hiring even when economic times were tough and finances were tight for them. Many years into their success, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard attributed the company’s success to “their willingness to invest in talent, no matter the external economic climate.”
Unfortunately, many companies make the mistake of freezing hiring in economic downturns. According to the Harvard Business Review, “During the 2008 global financial crisis, BCG and the European Association for People Management surveyed 3,400 executives, including 90 senior human resources leaders in more than 30 countries, to see how they were responding. The most frequent action (or reaction) was to scale back recruiting.” The survey also found that those same executives reported selective hiring of high-performing employees from competitors as one of the three most effective responses to the previous crisis.
It is clear that taking advantage of the high-performance talent pool that is available right now can strengthen your business in the short run and when the next economic crisis inevitably hits.
So, don’t just survive; thrive. Leverage this opportunity and partner with us to start seeing what talented engineers and automation professionals are out there.
