Almost everyone has one question on the top of their minds: is a global recession coming?
Until a few months ago, the shortage of talented employees seemed to be the greatest business threat. But not anymore!
Though the war to hire and retain the top talents is still on, companies across the world are tightening their belts to face yet another recession. However, knee-jerk reactions of putting hiring for open positions on hold, lowering the headcount, and sticking your heads in the sand in terms of finances won’t help. Despite humans’ natural ‘fight or flight’ tendency, such strategies are short-term fixes for long-term problems.
As everyone prepares to ride the economic storm that’s coming, it has become extremely crucial to plan ahead. You need to balance business stability with agility so you can quickly respond to changing market trends and demands to stay a step ahead of your competitors. Here are the top four ways to do it and keep your business moving forward.
1. Safeguard Your Assets
Across the world, June inflation statistics are setting new records. In the US, inflation hit 9.1% in June, the highest rate in 41 years. In the UK, the yearly inflation rate climbed to 9.4% in June, the highest rate since 1982.
These figures may tempt you to reduce the number of employees you engage. But this move could end up causing more damage to your business in the long run. As a business leader, now is the time to do everything you can to protect your most valuable asset – your staff.
If you understand the longstanding benefit of doing this and act accordingly, you will come out stronger and more prepared to tide over the tough times. If not, you could be facing mass quitting of your employees, similar to the Great Resignation in 2021.
2. Keep Your Talent Pipelines Active
While your competition may be standing by the sidelines and waiting for the situation to improve, you should continue searching for and hiring the top talents. Ensure to have carefully crafted job advertisements that appeal to the correct audience, work with a competent recruitment partner, and invest some money in LinkedIn advertising to find and acquire the top talents.
Additionally, you should showcase your company as an attractive employment prospect, raise your business profile by engaging with your target audience across social media channels, and convey the right message through your networks. All these steps are vital for future-proofing your business and making it thrive even when the chips are down.
3. Think Before Raising Your Employees’ Pay
Due to the escalating cost of living, several companies are tempted to raise their employees’ pay to offset expenses. But you need to do it cautiously because once you do it, you could get stuck in a vicious cycle where not giving an adequate raise could mean losing your star talents.
Though money is a major driving force for many, it’s not the end. When fighting the war for top talents, you need to consider other factors that motivate employees to stay with your company and perform optimally despite better counteroffers and fatter pay packets.
4. Partner with a Competent Headhunting Agency to Stay Agile
Business agility is as important as stability. Your employees need to keep an eye on changing market trends and demand and adjust strategies quickly as needed. The quicker their responses are, the better would be their outcomes. The more you supplement your in-house employees with external talent, the more agile your decision-making and responses will be.
Whether you need experts to work on short-term projects or specialists who can play long-term roles in your business, you can partner with a leading headhunting agency to tap into a global talent pool to find the best fit. To decide which employees you need to hire as your in-house staff and the ones as contractors, you should assess what expertise is core to your business and what isn’t. This will facilitate informed decision-making.
Wrapping Up
Protecting your human capital, ensuring your talent pipelines don’t run dry, not raising your employees’ pay without considering several other factors, and working with a competent headhunting company are ways to buckle up and ride the approaching economic storm.
Additionally, training the underperformers or moving them to more suited roles, understanding your income and expenditure, and helping your workforce strike the right work-life balance are other factors to focus on to tackle the looming global recession.
What other strategies can you suggest for business leaders to use?
This article was written by Sonali