Talent Strategies for the Restart of the Economy!

That's right! I said RESTART!

Spoiler Alert – It’s not all good news at least at this point.

On the whole, we are roughly 30 days (give or take) into social distancing and the world seems like it’s starting to make some sense on one hand and no sense on the other. One thing is for sure - Covid-19 will change the way business is conducted and how we interact with people. Professionally, we hear clients working problems like SBA Payroll Protection Plan (PPP), Disaster Loans, Cash Flow, Social Distancing their office setups, etc. Personally, we are wondering what Covid-19 means for our summers. Do we get to go to baseball games, will our kids have camps and sports, can we take a vacation or is it even safe to fly?

On the talent front, there are many forces and headwinds in play that need to be thought through by business leaders. Each business has their own unique needs and demands so I am going to try to be as general as I can with the forces below:

1. Unemployment benefit payments are more than many workers were making before the shutdown with the additional $600 / week stipend for 4 months.
2. The real cost of your business' Layoff or Furlough may prove to be much more expensive than what your business saved in payroll costs.
3. The economy fell far faster than it will come back because Covid-19 and social distancing is still a concern.
4. A second wave of Covid-19 is possible and businesses will be guarded.
5. Government Stimulus will not make up for long-term profit loss

Because of these forces and new challenges in the workplace, we are hearing some very interesting strategies across a number of industries. Here are the highlights:

Lower Wage Employees - In Ohio, the max someone can get from unemployment is roughly $1,080 / week without factoring in dependents. Since that is tax free, $1,080 is close to an equivalent salary run rate of $75k per year! For up to 4 months!! To say the increased unemployment benefits will be a disincentive for displaced employees to re-enter the job market would be a gross understatement. It’s our opinion, on the whole, the lower level labor market will not be fully back until August. Companies could offer sign on bonuses to help counteract the higher pay from unemployment.

Contract-to-Hire Employees at All Levels - Since society and our medical leadership really do not know if Covid-19 could produce another surge after we all return to work, at least on the short-run, many new employees will be brought back in a Contract-to-Hire on-boarding strategy. Businesses will be slow to commit to permanent workforce until the true direction of the virus is realized or a vaccine is widely present.

Re-Selling Furloughed / Laid Off Employees - If your layoff or furlough was not communicated properly up front, you may have broken trust with employees who have been affected. Those employees have had several weeks to reconsider their career path. As such, not all of your businesses employees will likely return when recalled. Smart Talent Leaders are already ahead of this with tailored solutions to re-attract their best talent.

Quick to Lay Off, Slow to Re-Hire - While business had record layoff numbers over the last 4 weeks and over 16,000,000 American's being out of work right now, It's extremely possible that there will be large lag in the job market. Companies have lost a great deal of profit over the last 4 weeks and will want to recoup some of that before opening hiring on a large scale. I should point out, I feel there will likely be a short hiring spike when the economy is opened again followed by a long and slow ramp up on the whole. The first roles to be filled will be the most critical as determined by the needs of the business.

Remote Workforce - This situation gave leaders a first hand view of what "Work From Home" (WFH) really looks like. I am hearing that it worked for some companies and it did not for others. There are obvious collaboration challenges and many employees are missing the interaction with their colleagues. On the whole however, we are hearing that WFH will be widely more accepted across many industries. Companies cultures were forced to change because of Covid-19 and those changes will likely last decades.

Are you doing something different? I'd love to hear about it! You can reach me at 513.448.5592 or [email protected]

Aquarius is a Cincinnati Home Grown staffing partner to some of the largest companies in the region. Founded in 2006, Aquarius has active pipelines in IT, Accounting, Operations, Finance, Marketing, Engineering, Clerical, Human Resources, Transportation, Administrative, Customer Service, and Beyond. Being client driven, Aquarius prides itself on its flexibility to consistently deliver value to its clients. We feel it's our ability to deliver value that makes us a partner not just a vendor. Aquarius has the bandwidth to support Direct Hire, Contract-To-Hire, Non Time Defined Contract or Special Projects.