People First
The current recruitment market continues to be a challenging one with market trends following a similar course of action. However, PEOPLE remain the core value to any business. Every organisations should take the time to assess what positions and practices your teams need when hiring ramps up.
People first in business permanence
There’s two clearly different ways you need to look at your ‘people resource’ at the moment. The individuals available to you NOW, and those that you want in THE FUTURE.
If like a lot of businesses your current recruitment strategy is to hold fire and see what happens, you need to clearly define what is expected from your teams. Are they expected to make up for gaps which wouldn’t usually be their responsibility? Create some certainty and loyal employees will shine.
worker and his senior colleague working with forklift machine in storage
This strategy is fine for the early stages of this crisis – all businesses need to take stock to survive. However, any business that wants to thrive rather than just survive needs to make difficult decisions. Now is the time to make sense of what your teams will need once the economic wheel starts turning again. Is now the time to at least start your recruitment conversations again?
Think of it this way… If you stop recruiting for 60 days, it could take 30 more days to start the ball rolling again. It could take 30-60 days to fill any newly opened roles and then you’ve to consider any notice periods your new recruits need to honour. It could be 4 to 5 months before your next hire starts. Can your business afford to wait that long?
There are of course ways to recruit faster and at a lower rate, and there will likely be a shift in talent when the economy opens up again, but the most ambitious businesses will act first to guarantee their pick of the top people.
So, no matter how your business prepares for the next stage after lockdown we all have to remember that PEOPLE COME FIRST! They are what drives our businesses forward above everything else, they are the driving force behind our successes.
Procedures and products are of course incredibly important, but people should always be your priority.
