How Can Companies take Advantage of an Economic Downturn

Could there possibly be any bright spots to the current economic downturn? In my opinion companies that have been fiscally responsible and have positioned their businesses to be in a solid cash position and to continue to post good results will emerge as next generation power houses within their industry. Of course, this will greatly depend on their ability to successfully navigate the the remainder of the recession while providing excellent customer service to their customers. Industries that have had multiple competitors prior to the "great" recession could eventually have just a handful or in some cases be the lone survivor and be well positioned to become an industry leader. Much will depend on businesses having a clear understanding of how their industries are changing specifically to accommodate the ever rapidly changing needs of their customers.

Companies define their industries very differently. While our business operates within the employment sector of the economy, we do not see all employment-related businesses as competitors. Even with our job board businesses, we do not view all job boards as our direct competition. In many cases job boards work collaboratively and can help each other by working together to provide a better experience for the end user. I am of the opinion that the more niche a business becomes the better positioned that business will be to enjoy long-term success. This is especially true due to the fact that the more targeted the business, the closer the business will be to their customer. We have learned this lesson well with the expansion of our business into both the healthcare and trucking industries with our portals HealthCareerWeb.com and CareersinGear.com.

Many facets of our business have changed over the last twelve months. One such change has been the fast-growing number of online users that are building a large audience when combined with our national print recruitment magazines. Not all job seekers are online. Many job seekers, especially in the hourly sector, still rely on print products to find their next job. While there is no doubting that the online audience is growing quickly, the same could be said of print. Just as online audiences are growing, so are pick-up rates. If employers want to reach the entire job seeker market, they still need to use the total recruitment solution of print and online.

Post-recession recruitment is going to look much different than it does today. Smart businesses will take advantage of the surplus talent on the market today to position their business well for continued innovation and growth in the future. If you could replace the 25% poorest performing employees on your staff with employees that possess the same skill set as your top performing 25%, would you do it? Of course you would. In the past could you do it? Highly unlikely. This is not necessarily true today. There are very talented individuals in the market for a new opportunity today. Businesses/employers would be wise to take advantage of the opportunity to make this a reality. My advice is to not simply go into an across-the-board cost-cutting mode. My advice is to cut the excess where possible, add increased talent, position your best people against your biggest opportunities, and invest in growing your market share and number of customers as your competition is either hanging on for their life or is only focused on self-preservation.

What kind of moves are you making to position your business or yourself to emerge from the recession in a more successful market position or capacity?

Pay-For-Perfomance Job Fairs

Innovation is the fuel that propels organizational success. The exploration and execution of new ideas and ways of approaching business is what sets an organization apart from its peers and allows for expansion into new business ventures. This can be done through such means as vertical integration, acquisition or development. I would describe innovation as being successful when it puts an organization on track to expand the customer base while also putting it in a better position to get deeper into the customer value chain.

Recent innovation here at The Employment Guide has included the introduction of a pay-for-performance (PFP) job fair business model. Some would call this approach to a traditional, established business model as "risky." Is there risk? Of course, there is always risk in being the first to try something new. With rapidly changing marketing strategies, vendors with budgetary confinements who want to augment the job fair process, and attendees who are better informed, computer literate and eager to maximize their time at job fairs, this is not the time for job fair companies to “rest on their laurels.” Just because a business model was successful a year ago, does not mean it will succeed in today’s market. Wisdom dictates innovation, innovation means change, and change can be tough. It only comes through an educational process. For us to undertake such a bold new approach to one of our legacy products, we had to get a good understanding and come to an acceptance of just how great the risk could be. Once we balanced the perceived risk against the upside for our customers, we decided to move forward with testing this new model.

With this said, is the mainstream model of doing business in the job fair arena completely broken? I do not personally think so; in fact many businesses, including The Employment Guide, will continue to hold these types of events and be successful. The testing of a PFP model is a proactive way for our organization to gain valuable knowledge of how this important piece of our business can change. In my opinion (and from the outstanding results we received from our first venture), PFP is going to become an increasingly popular business model. I do not think it makes good business sense to not constantly explore new ways of doing business. Just because previous methods of doing business were successful that does not mean that an improved way of meeting your customers’ needs is not just right around the corner.

We do have plans for additional PFP job fairs. The third quarter will include multiple events of this kind spread out across the United States. This job fair business model put significant pressure on the business to deliver results. As a business leader, I like to take our customers’ well-being into consideration and walk a mile in their shoes before implementing any new way of conducting business. With regards to our PFP job fair that we tested in Houston and the results we delivered to our customers, these shoes fit nicely!

There is a great book on innovation that I recommend titled "A Technique for Producing Ideas", authored by James Webb Young that I like to read to spur new ways of approaching our business. It is a quick read and the kind of book you take to lunch three or four times a year to get the creative juices flowing.

Once again, congratulations and special thanks to our Houston Employment Guide team who did a tremendous job and who had responsibility for the toughest part of this plan, the execution. I would also like to thank all of the job seekers and employers who participated in the event and who all contributed to its success.

Posted by Jeff Littlejohn at Tuesday, July 29, 2008 0 comments
Labels: Employment Guide, Jeff Littlejohn, job fair, pay for performance, recruitment advertising, Recruiting and Hiring

212 Degrees

A colleague of mine sent me a link this morning that took me to a video on a site called Just212 that was very inspirational. The point of the site/video is to use the fact that it only takes an increase of one degree in temperature to create boiling water which creates steam that can power a locomotive. That analogy spills over into how you approach your profession, your home life, your existence. You can order the book 212 The Extra Degree, authored by S.L. Parker, from this site. After viewing the video, I am compelled to order his book to read more about the 212 concept. Has anyone already read this book? If so, what did you think?

Do you have room for one additional degree worth of effort in your performance? How the "degree" looks and feels based on your profession could differ greatly, but there is little doubt in the fact that extra effort pays off. The pay off could be in separating your own performance from your peers in order to progress in your profession, it could mean attaining higher commissions or more bonuses, etc.

All too often people use the fact that they have too much on their plates as a way to justify their performance or lack thereof. I frequently ask those folks if they do not want to further advance their career. I ask this question because undoubtedly any advancement will bring the need for additional responsibility, not less, which means more of a demand of one's time. What people often forget is that as they move up in their profession the game speeds up (football players use this analogy to describe what it is like to go from playing college ball to pro ball).

I think using 212 degrees as a way to communicate the fact that a little extra effort goes a long way is right on target. If watching the very creative video doesn't increase your temperature by one additional degree due to getting fired up you might as well be in a professional coma.
In these days of "recession" and "tough times" it will be the individuals, the businesses, the organizations that take the 212 degrees approach that will not only achieve success but will also create separation from the competition. Define what effort and responsibilities you perform on a daily basis that are the most important to your success, and turn up the temperature!

Let’s say you are an inside sales representative. If you average 25 sales calls each day and average one sale per day and increase your daily calls by five per day you could increase your total number of sales by one additional sale per week. Here at Employment Guide Media this small increase in activity could mean as much as an additional $5,000 or much more in annual income.

This reminds me of an exercise I used to conduct with my team when I was a local manager leading our efforts at the St. Louis Employment Guide. Together we would conduct an income check-up that would in essence be a backwards math exercise that would take our great sales team (they are great!) through the process of understanding what they would need to commit to in order to hit their personal financial goals. We found this to be a great way to create a game plan for each member of the team, because each individual had different levels of expectations and goals related to their personal incomes, like wanting to purchase a new car, or buy their first house, etc. I was impressed with how clear everyone's personal goals were that were tied to their finances. You might find this exercise of great benefit to you personally or to your team. It was always clear through these kinds of exercises that effort created opportunity and increased opportunity led to obtainment of personal goals.

Take your effort to 212 degrees verses 211 degrees and see if it makes a difference in some aspect of your life. Where can you apply this practice and make the biggest difference? At work? At home? Give it a shot. What do any of us have to lose by putting forth a greater effort and being the best that we can possibly be at everything that we do? Let's be difference makers!

I have also added a video that I found on You Tube that also promotes the 212 philosophy.

The New EmploymentGuide.com

Mark your calendars.

On February 23rd we will proudly present...

· Increased Usability
· Streamlined Application Process
· Video, Video, Video
· Local, Local, Local

Got the point?

Want to know more?

Be sure to tune in!

EmploymentGuide.com

What's New No. 2

So what else is going on at The EG that is new and exciting in addition to the recent introduction of video? Over the course of the later half of 2007, our talented product development team and programmers went to work on constructing a new solution for recruiters in the health care industry. Breaking from the platform of traditional job boards, our team, after researching the industry, decided to incorporate a social networking component into our new site. It was clear that people in the health care industry needed their own community online; therefore, we introduced our social networking section of the new HealthCareerWeb.com called, "MedCom."

After the soft launch of the site at the end of 2007, we started to see an influx of medical professionals starting to find their new networking space. As we near the hard launch date, more than 2,000 individuals have already created networking profiles in addition to uploading resumes and actively applying for jobs. We are also very excited to have Denise Tanner leading our HealthCareerWeb.com efforts in the capacity of business development manager. Denise has professional experience within the health care industry and has a great understanding on how to best position our products to meet the needs of both job seekers and recruiters. Denise has already contributed greatly to our efforts in preparing HealthCareerWeb.com for the upcoming hard launch.

At the rate new jobs are being created in the health care industry, we understand the importance of developing a product that can readily meet the needs of the industry. The aging population in the United States is the primary reason for the increasing health care hiring bubble, and when an economic trend is demographically supported, it typically come to fruition.

A large part of our motivation in developing this new product is to meet the needs of our customers (job seekers and recruiters within the health care industry). Another large part of our motivation is to be a partner in proactively meeting the health care needs of the aging population base within the United States. We have a large group of hourly job seekers that utilize our products and services that represent a great base for educational programs to tap into in order to re-career individuals for new careers in health care. As manufacturing jobs, construction jobs, etc., are on the decline, there are great opportunities for individuals within these respective professions to embark on a new rewarding career within health care.

We are very excited about our newest product offering! A special thanks goes out to all of the individuals who worked together to pave the way for our newest offering, HealthCareerWeb.com.

Core Purpose

The second part of defining your organization's core ideology is in identifying your "purpose." The "core purpose" as defined by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, the authors of Built to Last, follows:

Core Purpose - "The organization's fundamental reasons for existence beyond just making money - a perpetual guiding star on the horizon: not to be confused with specific goals or business strategies."

The purpose of an organization should be able to act as a guiding light to inspire an organization for a substantial period of time. It should be of a nature that it can never be fully achieved but yet continually pursued. You have to "get at the deeper more fundamental reasons for the organization's existence."

What is the core purpose of The Employment Guide? It is to provide information, tools and resources to help people find jobs and employers find qualified people within niche recruitment segments (i.e., hourly, health care, transportation, etc.).

The combination of your organizational core values and core purpose is what makes up your core ideology. It is important for the people who make up an organization to have an understanding of their responsibilities and how their efforts tie into the core ideology of an organization. This is also a good way to evaluate prospective employees. Do they "fit?" While this may or may not be uncovered during the interview process, an environment or culture that is self-sustaining or has a high level of self-accountability will quickly move to expunge individuals who do not share the fundamental organizational beliefs of the organization.

What is your company's core purpose?

Be The Best

What makes the difference between organizations that are successful during tough times or times of change? Is it work ethic, the people, the product or the culture? You can point to many different reasons as to why someone is successful in the face of adversity, but the common denominator will always be the people. Products change due to people. The work ethic in an organization is determined by the people. The culture is determined by decisions that are made and the direction taken that ultimately points back to people. An organization will be successful or not based on their people. In fact, in this competitive world there are many companies that are basically putting out the same products and providing similar services. So what differentiates one from the others? It is the people!

Most organizations have a focus on attracting talent and retaining that talent. This constant flow of prospective new employees is going to be most critical moving forward into the future as the labor market continues to tighten and the economy becomes one that is passive job seeker driven. You and your organization can get ahead of the curve today by making sure you have quality succession plans in place, have your talented folks on a clear career path and are constantly recruiting for talent. Even if you are comfortable with your current staffing levels, you need to be actively recruiting and hiring. When you come in tomorrow you might find that you have two new openings that could immediately place a bottleneck in front of you and make it difficult for you to obtain an acceptable level of productivity and performance. Even living and breathing in the recruitment industry and possessing this knowledge does not make our organization exempt from feeling the impact and needing to follow these sames steps. The good news is that we are actively working on this and have already felt a positive impact as a result. Leaders have to take an active role in this process and influence the execution through the effective casting of their vision. This will aid greatly in making your organization one that attracts talent.

How are your recruiting efforts going? Are you missing an opportunity to grow your business due to not having enough talented folks working to accomplish your vision? What have been the most creative ways you have utilized to recruit quality people?

Be a Talent Magnet

Leadership is going to take on an increasingly important role in one of the most critical components of being successful as we move into the future. This critical component is recruiting and hiring. As the national unemployment rate continues to dip towards sub 4% and has already been as low as 2% in some places, the recruiting and hiring process will become a "make it or break it" proposition for some organizations. Barring unforeseen, radical immigration reform, we are on course for employment shortages like the ones we currently are experiencing in nursing and in transportation across the entire labor industry. The emerging passive job seeker labor economy is going to mean that leadership will be put under the spotlight due to individuals wanting to go to work for someone who is talented and can offer professional development beyond just earning a paycheck. Organizations such as the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM) have been pointing to this pending shortage for years. SHRM has research indicating that by the year 2012, there will be three million more jobs than there is people to fill these vacancies. Can you say "labor crisis!"

Companies that are going to thrive during these times are going to be the ones who can differentiate themselves from the competition by being a talent magnet. I am sure you are familiar with the saying that you are only as good as the people with whom you surround yourself. Surrounding yourself with talent is going to become increasingly difficult. It is going to take a talented leader to attract top talent. Prospective job seekers are not going to just come to work for an opportunity, they are going to come work for a leader who personifies the organization and is one in whom they have high confidence in in terms of developmental and advancement opportunities.

Put yourself as a leader through a hard self-examination. Would you come to work for yourself? Take a good look in the mirror. If you cannot honestly say yes, you need to immediately get busy on your own professional development and become a more effective leader. It will be the leader who is the talent magnet who will have the means to turn their organization into one that is truly world class. Be a talent magnet!