ATC: Dr John Sullivan

So much was covered in the morning session at ATC I will try and summarise some of my thoughts in a few posts.

First for the summary was Dr John Sullivan, and like always he provided a massive amount of information and stirred up the crowd. Here is a summary of his one hour information dump on us:

Early Warning Signs of downturn

• # of approvals to get a req approved
• Travel freezes
• Paper clip memo – do not buy small stuff
• Stop hiring contingency workers/or laying them off
• Other firms freeze their hiring
• Recruiting budgets cut
• Layoffs, furloughs, pay freezes

 Why this is different

• Volatility of stock markets & credit availability with short spurts of growth
• Global markets, means that there is still growth out there
• Global competition will increase as organitions need to regain their positions
• Expectations for innovations will not decrease
• Churn will be common (hiring & laying off at the same time)
• Government bailouts
• No other career options for recruiters

Advantages of recruiting during tough times

• Less competition from other firms, because less recruitment budgets, means it will be easier to sell the job to candidates (I don’t agree with this point)
• More high quality candidates available as some of the layoffs are massive in scope
• Less loyalty amongst survivors
• Weakened employer brands
• Turnover & retirements rates will decrease
• Cheap recruiting technology
• get ready to explode out of the box when things turn around
• Tight times make you stronger
• Workforce planning will be encouraged
• Some industries will suffer less