Unoriginal Thoughts

Given that everyone else seems to have an opinion on today’s ‘unprecedented times’ I thought why not add another voice to the cacophony of noise.

It’s no secret that, for the most part, the economy has slowed significantly and we’re almost certain to be heading towards a significant economic recession when the immediate threat of coronavirus subsides. Within Financial Services, more people are being made redundant/furloughed than are being hired which will have lasting ramifications for months to come. From a recruitment perspective, on the face of things, the choice should be straightforward – switch off, and wait for things to pick back up… That said, not all firms are abiding:

As mentioned above, the easy and most straightforward option for firms to take, would be to stop for the foreseeable future until the uncertainty passes, and then cautiously re-evaluate recruitment further down the line. Whilst I’m not necessarily urging firms to stand against both the tide and logic, it’s not unreasonable to suggest that the way firms utilise this time could have a lasting effect on their recruitment efforts moving forwards.

In the short-term, an argument can be made that if your firm is open to the idea of expanding, you’ll never face less competition in the perpetual war for talent. The initial increase in costs through hiring could be offset through a higher quality of personnel who in the long run would be able to add more value. I completely accept that the above is more easily quantifiable & justifiable for revenue-generating position than others, but the baseline remains the same.

For those who aren’t in the position to hire, it would be na?ve to think that as a result, the steps taken now won’t impact future hiring. One of the more valuable pieces of content which I’ve come across on LinkedIn has been:

‘Urging every job seeker moving forward to ask during an interview process how the firm reacted and adapted during the COVID pandemic.’

 In an age of shifting candidate motivations, If firms can demonstrate that they’ve genuinely put employee welfare at the forefront of their policy, it can set-up a fantastic reputation throughout the market and make hiring easier for years to come. Firms are being increasingly judged on their ESG as opposed to pure financial returns, in particular corporate governance. The US are probably the clearest example of this, where a critical goal for many firms is to make it onto the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For with firms successfully making the list finding that their subsequent recruitment has been easier. There’s no better sell of a firm than through word-of-mouth/referrals and in these times, the market is becoming more interconnected than ever.

Realistically, given that I’m running out of new content to watch on Netflix, I’ll be following this up with another article next week focusing on how candidates should best prepare themselves to stand out from the crowd given the limited opportunities currently available. But in the interim period, if you have any questions or if there’s any way I can help, then please drop me a note, it’s important that we all try and do our bit during these times.