New Jobs

There are many folks still unemployed in America. However, I keep hearing that the jobs they held are eliminated, never to be seen again. That doesn't mean these talented masses can't be re-deployed, or find fulfilling work or Does it? I think a key eliminate in America is missing in this generational recession that could be eradicated and help improve the unemployment rate; How? WE gather the Courage to Change and cooperate.

I challenge that allot of companies do have multiple needs for more employees and have seen a profit. They still are not hiring. I see jobs go unanswered for months in technology firms, and even financial firms have had postings expire on major job boards. Why?

Well many reasons, first there is a number of roles that don't have skilled workers to fill, some technologies are so critically advanced that even the creators of the roles don't know where to find the experts. Secondly because of the lack of consumer confidence companies are in fear of hiring, they are extending their present work force beyond the norm, and hesitant to hire new talent. Third and I believe a greater contributor to lack of hires is a lack of Allocated Talent reach. I believe there is supply of talent that would fill a majority of the roles needed and increase productivity and decrease unemployment. The problem is an umbrella of unallocated resources and the reach of our present day hiring talent.

As hiring and staffing professionals we face a myriad of trouble in searching for talent. We have limited resources, a plethora of channels to communicate, and such a diverse talent pool that it takes time to catalog skill sets, add to that an ever changing world, and labor focus makes any search hard.

Logistics, communication, or cooperation is roadblocks in the employers talent reach. Logistically many companies need local talent and local talent is depleted, the cost of relocation is too high and therefore the role goes unfulfilled. I suggest that the cost of that role being unfulfilled would be work the cost of relocation. However, communicating or finding that talent nationwide is cumbersome.

Communication and channels to find talent are varied. The internet is great in finding talent that we specifically need, but not so good in finding talent that can't be described in buzz words, or finding talent in channels we are unfamiliar with. It takes a concerted effort to find channels that talent communicates in, and limiting to just internet searches and job boards is a critical failure for employment practices. We must as professionals research our sources, draw metrics on what works and what doesn't so we can make every penny and moment count. Many don't use agencies today because of the cost; I think this is an error, especially when looking in an area that your company doesn't have a presence. Financial Service companies are notorious for using only Agencies; shouldn't you be the best at searching and on boarding your own talent and reducing cost? Agencies provide talent but don't do a good job of sharing the IP in finding that talent. We need a combination of all. Newspapers are dead? Are they? I read a Sunday Paper on the beach more than I check my Blackberry-- why? Sand gets in it. Also print gets picked up from those news spiders so it actually is cost efficient as well as effective. A mix of resources must be used, but the biggest roadblock is cooperation. Cooperation is needed; between management and the employee, between government and corporation, between those that are helping the unemployed and those that are hiring.

Effectiveness of hiring practices begins with Cooperation. A huge amount of companies don't have hiring talent that pushes back, or that has a seat at the decision making table to impact critical strategic decisions such as Workforce Planning or Revenue Goals. Imagine a world where a recruiter could go to the CEO and say: You want to hire 5 Executives to manage 10 Accounts with two clients each at a ridiculous salary. Have you thought about the local talent here, did you know that you could hire 10 Sr. Managers with past success in managing these types of accounts plus an additional 10 Jr. level Support folks for the same salary which typically increase revenue by X? Or an HR person that tells the Engineering team that the job description they designed doesn't exist in this century and instead let’s create one that is in this hemisphere with the opportunity to hire an innovative engineer that will create the next generation of technology. Not so simple, or is it?

Cooperation from the Government that increases the training of talent and widens its vision of what is aide, to cooperation from the congress to stop labeling the black and white, and start addressing the issues, Cooperation from local businesses to invest in people and talent for the right jobs vs. hiring practices that although are not illegal are similar to the times of blacklisting (i.e.: Not hiring anyone who is unemployed), or from playing politics instead of business.

Open Vision, and Ability to Change to an ever Changing Labor Market is key. All other problems the search, the skill, the resources will be minimized if we recognize what we don't know and discover what we can do through Cooperation and Courage.

We are better than this Stale Mate! Let America be Strong United and Hire, Hire, Hire.