The power of the Milk Bottle!!

Thanks to Goldman Sachs the word recession has been firmly placed on the tip of everyone's tongue this week. Yes the financial services industry has been hit particularly hard, but don't forget they are still making 100's of £millions profits, they are still paying big bonuses and now they even have an opportunity to clear out many bad debts under the 'credit crunch' banner ( cynical I know!!). The problem that I have with these statements is that many companies hear these statements and actually start to believe that there is an actual recession right now. Well it may surprise you that for many, many companies this simply isn't the case, and recruiters need to get that on board right away.

Unfortunately companies immediately go into a lockdown mentality and straight away talk about hiring freezes and impending redundancies. I can fully understand this relating to the financial services industry, because they have been hit badly and will have to reduce costs accordingly. But what about the many thousands of companies out there that are still doing very well, making profits and thriving? They are still going to want good people aren't they? They are still recruiting talent and they are still having to replace natural attrition aren't they? And take the companies that are not doing so well - they will have more higher levels of attrition (as the staff leave like rats of a sinking ship), and they they will need senior people experienced in getting companies back on on track again.

So where is the problem you recruiters? Don't be negative and start to believe the word recession is taking hold because it will effect your ability to do your job. I have recruited through two 'proper' recessions and while it was tough, there are always companies that want to hire people, you just have to look that little bit harder!! Always work on the philosophy that the milk bottle is half full, because if you tell your clients that enough times, they will listen to you and will just get on with hiring people as normal!! The power of positive thinking does work!