I was having dinner with friends the other evening and one asked how my business was going. I replied (truthfully) that I had never been busier. He was surprised.
"With all the people out of work, who needs help recruiting?" he asked.
I explained in general terms the skills gap and the need for talent in specific areas and industries. Now there's additional evidence that the labor market is, indeed, heating up once again.
Recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data show that the "quit rate" (the percentage of workers who voluntarily quit their jobs) has inched upwards to 1.7% of the work force. That doesn't sound like much, but when you consider that the quit rate was at 2.1% before the Great Recession, then dipped down to 1.2% at its nadir, one can see that it has risen back half way to where it was in the booming years of the Aughts.
Economists view this as a positive sign, because it indicates that people are more confident they can find another job in this economy. Employers should take note - it also means that your best talent may be looking elsewhere.
Recent research by McKinsey has established that the classic Brand Funnel - once a staple of business school branding theory - has been replaced by a Brand Loop. Instead of becoming advocates for a brand for life (or until the brand broke its implicit promises), McKinsey found that the constant barrage of information coming at people causes them to re-think their choices of brands continuously. That extends to their choice of employers.
Best practice for employers is to constantly re-market themselves not only to potential recruits, but also to their own employees. If you are not telling your story to your people, some other employer probably is (either directly or by proxy, i.e., through friends and family of your employees).
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