Konstanty discusses what HR teams can do now to prepare for the upcoming recovery. Here is a transcript of the video:
Back in 2008 when I was thinking of starting out my own business a mentor gave me some advice. He said, “never waste a good recession”. This has stuck with me ever since.
A recession or a crisis such as the one we are in now is of course not ideal on many levels. The impact on people and livelihoods is immense. This will however end. Seriously, it will and the world will move forward from this point. Things will most probably be a little different though so as an executive, HR leader or manager you have a duty. A responsibility really to your business and to your people. So ask yourself this:
Are you using the crisis to survive or to reshape the status quo and set yourself up in a stronger position?
A crisis is to a certain extent a reset button. It can, and in my opinion should be, used to step back a moment and look at the bigger picture, discover new opportunities and set yourself up for success. By far the biggest influence on your future success is in the people, the team, you build around yourself.
Teams take work though. Hiring, training and retaining them is a full time job. As a leader, your duty right now is to make sure that you position your team for success. Find the skills gaps and start considering how they can be bridged. Training is of course part of this. Do however also consider that the moment a recovery starts taking shape the talent market will take off again so now is the ideal time to start asking yourself who you will need to hire to set your team and business up to make the best of the recovery.
You may not have the headcount. You may say you do not have the budget to hire. That is fine. That will change though and when it does you can be ready with a plan, market intelligence, salary benchmarking and a way to quickly execute while the competition is still drafting a job description and figuring out if they should prioritise the Backend Java or Frontend React role.
If you want to know more about how to plan your staffing needs for a recovery get in touch. This is not our first recession and it will not be our first recovery. Let’s plan ahead.