How
Can Business Benefit?
High
unemployment has been with us for four years and economists say it will be with
us into 2013. The MainStream Management
Monthly Newsletter #21 states “The employment outlook for 2013 offers little
cause for New Year’s Eve celebration. Champagne bottles will have more fizz
than the U.S. economy in the near term, and the same unemployment headaches we
cited sixteen months ago will persist.”
The
government appears to settle on the same solutions while expecting different
results. Since we are expecting more of
the same policies, will business react differently in order to grow their flat
revenues?
Which
businesses will benefit from the new “normal” workforce? How will they change their way of doing
business in order to grow their revenues?
Many
business leaders point to the economy and say, “Look at the state of the
economy! No wonder our revenues are
flat.” Therefore they are demonstrating
they are willing to continue to conduct business the same way while expecting
different results or at least accepting their current condition.
The
workforce is dynamic; and wise companies adopt new methods when the workforce
economy changes. How may companies
benefit from the current conditions?
The
official unemployment rate is table U3 in the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Household
Data, Table A.15 Alternative Measures of Labor Underutilization (http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t15.htm)
. In October 2012, the official unemployment
rate was 7.9%. Table U3 only measures
individuals receiving unemployment benefits.
People who have dropped off of unemployment benefits are no longer
counted in Table U3. Then they fall into
table U6 where they are counted as unemployed or underutilized as a result of
the economy. In October 2012, that
number was 14.6% of the available workforce.
Table U6 translates roughly to 23 million workers either unemployed or
under employed as a result of the economy.
Of
those 23 million workers, how many are spending money and contributing to our
economy? Not many. How do we improve the economy? Hire these people one at a time on a full
time or temporary basis. Even large
hiring efforts only hire one person at a time.
The time between hires and the methods of sourcing are different.
For
the sake of discussion, it is well documented that generally companies do not
track their high performers well. Of the
23 million unemployed or under employed workers how many are Top Performers? My guess is there are only about 10% of those
people who are Top Performers. In our
current economy roughly 2.3 million unemployed/under employed workers are Top
Performers, otherwise known as “A” Players.
Of course that number causes people to further wonder about the wisdom
of only hiring people who have jobs, especially when you consider that 90% of
employed workers are not considered Top Performers.
Why
would a company in need of new revenues want to attract a Top Performer
now? That person may be the person that
discovers the answer to revenue woes and change the business immediately while
cutting costs and adding profitable new revenues. As a result of their unemployment, they
generally are willing to accept less compensation than if they were employed
full time. Now companies may attract the
smart, ingenious, seasoned performers with initiative at a time when they can
afford them. With the additional
profitable revenues, the company comes out ahead financially.
How
can companies with flat revenues attract these Top Performers? It depends on the business strategy.
If
the business only wants to hire full time employees, they need a recruiting process
that facilitates the attraction of “A” Players.
Sometimes those individuals are driven away from companies that do not
understand that successful recruitment is a sales process.
Of
course some companies’ revenues are so low now that as much as they would like
to hire someone new it would be unwise for all parties. These companies may want to consider hiring a
pre-screened interim executive from an established management consulting firm.
These
interim executives have proven talent growing revenues in companies where
revenue growth is stagnant. Top
Performers give a fresh look at all aspects of a company – products, services,
pricing, profitability, talent, manufacturing, logistics, vendors, and
customers without shades with sacred cows looking in to protect their turf.
The
unemployment conundrum may benefit companies with the need for more aggressive profitable
revenue growth during a time when the best talent is readily available and
affordable.
