Change is in the Air

"I can feel it coming in the air tonight" - Phil Collins

In speaking with companies and industry professionals everyday, it provides us with a good perspective on the current economic climate.

During the tough times, companies will delay filling open positions, put new initiatives on hold and, unfortunately, need to reduce headcount. On the flip side, when things begin to turn around, many of the executives will move quickly to to act on important initiatives that have been in the planning stages for many months.

Right now, we are starting to see this happening. For many companies, Q1 results are in and the trends have been positive. With this in mind, many are jumping to get a leg up on the competition by becoming more aggressive.

High level Business Development positions are opening up as the battle for market share gets more intense. As their customers begin to spend more money, the aggressive and proactive companies will be there in the forefront.

Also, during downturns, many of the first positions to be targeted for reduction are high level corporate support roles. Since many of these are considered to be "non-revenue producing", they come under a lot of scrutiny. As hiring freezes get lifted, this is another group of positions that quickly get brought back into the fold. Many of these executives are the ones that "fine tune" the operations of the company through Continuous Improvement, Best Practice Implementation, Process Enhancement and Efficiency Increases. We are starting to see more demand for these individuals as well.

So, what implications does this have?

Over the past several months, in addition to slower hiring trends, many high-performing industry professionals have been asked to do more with less which has created a lower level of job satisfaction. In the US, Job Satisfaction Levels are, according to several reports, at the lowest in over 30 years. Normally, an unhappy employee would start looking around and make a career move. However, with all of the discouraging economic and  employment numbers, they elect to ride it out because of the perceived stability of their current situation.

Now, these individuals are sensing the change and have begun surfacing and exploring new challenges and career opportunities. This, coupled with the hiring increases mentioned above, has started to increase the number of voluntary resignations and caused employers to implement contingency plans to address this unplanned turnover.

During tough times, many people hunker down to avoid the storm and can miss what is happening in the world outside.  As a company, are you prepared for the rebound and do you have contingency plans in place to address unplanned turnover? As an Industry Professional, is it time to act on those desire for a change?

Perhaps is it time for you to open the window and check the climate. You might feel a change in the air.