It’s the End of Recruiting As We Know It!

Well, not really.

Or maybe…just maybe we are still inside the wave that was the pandemic and the impact it had on so many areas of our lives.

You know about it. The Great Resignation and reimagining what one wants and how one will work. Where one will work. Remote work: hire people from all across the globe! Hybrid work models. A stock market that surged in ‘21 and crashed in ‘22. Recession. Inflation. The Fed. Layoffs.

OOOHHH. Layoffs.

We were doing so well, and then the L word.

That colossal amount of talent flooding the market will make companies thinking of placing a call to a recruiter pause to see who they can find on their own. Your Inbox and VM become filled with even more messages from unemployed stars looking for a connection. But you don’t work for them.

What about your clients sending you searches? Companies laying off aren’t usually first options for job seekers. Is your work drying up?

We’ve talked to a lot of our recruiter contacts over the last month or so and we are hearing mixed feedback. Some are busy with searches to fill. Others have seen a slowdown in business, to the point that their own businesses are struggling. They are worried about their own careers.

We’d love to hear what’s on your mind.

• Are the layoffs mostly companies shedding extra personnel, likely caused by extra hiring during the pandemic? Is this cost savings that will likely hurt the business due to lost intuitional knowledge and damaged company morale or part of a clear strategy?
• Are companies who are hiring clear on what they want? Are their job descriptions accurate with a clear strategy in mind for who they need and how that employee will move the business forward?
• Have you started to see companies using this environment as an opportunity to trade up their talent? If so, what are your thoughts on how they are going about it?
• How’s your business? Are you going through challenges, or tailwinds, outside of the norm? Are there elements you are facing that I haven’t mentioned here?

I would love to hear from you about what you are encountering!

Mark Anderson

Mark Anderson is ExecuNet's president and chief economist. An Arjay Miller Scholar, Mark received his MBA from Stanford University and a BA in economics from Yale University. He joined ExecuNet in 1993, with extensive marketing and new product and business development experience, having served as president and founder of A&M Associates, an investment management firm. Mark's corporate leadership experience includes several senior marketing and financial positions with RCA Global Communications (a GE subsidiary) and American Can Company.