Without exception, everyone I speak with in the RPO industry experienced a dramatic slowdown in their business starting in October or November of 2008. The consensus seems to be that business dropped off between 25% and 50%, with most companies experiencing a 35-40% drop. Most of these same companies are predicting an upswing starting at the end of 2009 or early 2010, with some more pessimistic companies predicting that a recovery won’t come until 3rd or 4th quarter of 2010.

Since most believe an upswing will occur in the foreseeable future, the strategy for this period has shifted from a growth or even sustaining strategy, to one of survival. I believe that those who will weather the slowdown best are the largest and the smallest providers, while the middle-sized ones will suffer the most.

Obviously the largest providers have the most financial resources and their risk is spread across a largest client base, with a larger spread both in terms of geographic spread and industry. Many of these providers (Adecco, Manpower, Kelly, Spherion) also have diversity in the types of staffing they provide and can focus on other parts of their business like temporary staffing as the RPO market cools.

At the same time, while the smallest providers don’t have the diversity or financial resources of the large ones, they have the ability to be nimble, and turn on a dime. As the market shifts, they can respond most quickly to niche opportunities in the market. Also, the smallest providers tend not to have expensive infrastructure and they can contract primarily by laying off or redeploying staff.

The middle-sized providers (100-300 employees) however, tend to have a more sophisticated (and therefore expensive) infrastructure and enough levels of management that they can no longer turn on a dime. Without the financial strength of the largest providers, they may find themselves struggling the most in this downturn.

As in any downturn, the companies that will thrive will play to their strengths and focus on the parts of their business where they have a sustainable competitive advantage.

In my next post I’ll put forth some ideas for small, medium, and large providers to implement immediately to play to their unique strengths.

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In a previous post I discussed how the financial crisis is driving some baby boomer retirees (or Reluctantly Returning Recent Retirees - or RRRRs as I’ve dubbed them) back into the workplace.  I promised to follow up with some specific ideas you can put into place right away to target this market, so here goes.

1)    Downplay software requirements in your advertising and posting.  Many RRRRs are self conscious about the difference between their technological expertise and that of younger workers.  While they may have perfectly good computer skills, they are less likely to be confident in their ability to learn new systems quickly.  Let’s face it – today’s younger worker master a new technology every 3 months and they facebook/twitter/text/iPhone effortlessly.  You CAN teach an old dog new tricks, but it may take a bit longer.  If you want to attract RRRRs, you should use language that makes it clear that, while you require a certain level of computer expertise, you provide training on the specific software utilized by your company.

2)    Emphasize your need for EXPERIENCE.  The one thing RRRR’s bring to the table that their younger counterparts don’t is years of experience.  Make it clear your organization is actively seeking individuals who bring years of experience to the table.
3)    Emphasis transferability of skills.  If you are open to career changers coming from other industries, make it clear that the skills they gained in their previous career can help them succeed in this new, exciting opportunity.
4)    Simplify your online application process.  I have seen online applications as easy as e-mailing in a resume, and as complex as 27 pages of data capture over a 45-minute timeframe.  The longer and more complicated your application process, the more you risk alienating a potential employee.  Remember, anyone 40 or older remembers when submitting a resume involved typing out a resume on heavy weight stationary and putting it in an envelope.  The online application process is foreign to any baby boomer who hasn’t looked for a job in the last 15 years, to keep it as simple as possible.
5)    Focus group your employment brand with a few baby boomers.  While you can certainly hire a firm to do this (and I’d be happy to quote you on a SharpObject Consulting run employment branding focus group), you can get a pretty good idea of where you stand by simply asking a few boomers to go to your website, look at the employment pages, and apply for a few jobs online.  Everyone has a parent or cousin or aunt or uncle who they could enlist to do this.  Make sure you ask for at least five different opinions so you aren’t weighing too heavily on any one person’s opinion, and then ACT on the feedback you get.

This is only scratching the surface of a true targeted program, but hopefully if you take these ideas and add a few of your own, you’ll be on the way to reaching out to the talent you need to build your business.

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In my last post, I talked about how Reluctantly Returning Recent Retirees (or RRRRs) are coming back into the workforce as a result of the recent downturn in the stock market and the resulting shrinkage of their retirement accounts.

Smart companies will specifically target some recruitment marketing messages to these RRRRs.  In order to do this most effectively, we need to start with a creative brief to ensure our message is properly targeted to this market.

From years of dealing with marketing professionals (some very good and some very-not-so-good), I’ve learned that there are as many ways to write a creative brief as there are socially awkward nerds at a comic book convention.  Below is a sample creative brief based on a simple template I’ve used in the past.   Obviously you’ll want to edit it based on the specific types of positions you are trying to fill and the unique offering of your firm, but this should get you started.

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Recruitment Marketing Creative Brief Targeting

Reluctantly Returning Recent Retirees

WHAT DO WE WANT TO ACCOMPLISH

Engage our audience to spend time learning about career opportunities we offer.

WHO ARE WE TALKING TO

Baby boomers (age 66 to 49) who are recently retired, but considering a return to work for financial reasons.

HOW DO THEY THINK AND FEEL

• They are worried about the future
• They are returning to work primarily for financial reasons
• They feel they deserve a position which reflects their years of experience
• They want to be treated with the respect which they have earned
• They are afraid of being lumped in with “all these young folks”
• They are concerned about competing against younger and more technologically savvy workers

WHAT IS THE SMP ? (Single Minded Proposition)

Your experience and talents are needed, and can earn you the money you want.

WHAT MUST OUR EFFORTS PROMPT THE TARGET TO DO?

Explore our website, apply for a position, send us a resume or register for future openings, get engaged with our staff so we can help them!

WHAT IS THE BEST EVIDENCE TO STIMULATE THIS RESPONSE?

• At any given moment we have more jobs than we have talent to fill (give numbers if possible – i.e. we have 43 new jobs each week)
• Our clients demand experienced individuals who bring a depth of experience with them
• We don’t have time to train “newbies” – we need your seasoned skills and abilities

TONE OF VOICE

Respectful, optimistic, forthright, engaging

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How the stock market crash is good for the recruitment industry

 The staffing industry has been buzzing for at least the last 10 years about the looming labor shortage as baby-boomers retire- in ever increasing numbers.  The worry gripping the industry is that this exodus of talent out of the workforce will leave talent gaps which incoming workers cannot fill. 

 We’ve all experienced the pain caused to a business when Chuck retires and we realize the next day that Chuck was the one who knew where the coffee filters were kept, or had the code to turn the lights on after-hours or knew how to reboot that troublesome testing computer.  Now imagine the disruption when 70 million boomers retire, except instead of unique expertise in coffee filter location, they have unique and irreplaceable knowledge in running the city’s electrical grid, or nuclear power plant management, or the logistics of running an aging legacy data center.

 According to the most recent American Staffing Association survey, one in five staffing professionals said the labor shortage is the most pressing issue facing the recruitment industry and fully half said it’s one of the top five issues.

 Well, I’ve got some good news and some bad news.  The bad news is that the stock market is in the tank and portfolios are down from 30-50%.  Of course there are exceptions – some individuals had limited exposure to the stock market and are doing ok, and others had all their money with Bernie Madoff and as soon as they come out of their daze from realizing they’ve lost everything, they’ll have to come up with “Plan B” for their retirement.

The GOOD news, at least as far as the staffing industry is concerned, is that the virtual overnight contraction in retirement portfolios may convince a number of baby-boomers to put off retirement for a few years and may cause some recent retirees to rejoin the labor force.  I have personal experience with some retired boomers who recently went back to work to earn enough money to maintain their lifestyle, now that their portfolio is struggling, and they are bringing valuable skills and experience back into the job market. 

So the smart thinkers at staffing companies and RPO firms right now should be polishing their sourcing plans and candidate marketing campaigns to target these reluctantly returning recent retirees.  Think about how to tweak your candidate marketing to appeal to that individual who is worried about their retirement funds, and just starting to think about coming back to work.  Those who successfully make this pitch should have access to an entire pool of candidates which was unavailable even six months ago, creating a competitive advantage in both client acquisition, and client service.

I’ll list some specific ideas for how to approach this market in my next post.

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