29May
There is no doubt the current job activity volume in the market has declined but candidates ARE still looking to change jobs and companies ARE still hiring.
The types of positions we are primarily seeing are the “doer” roles (Staff Accountant, Senior Accountant, Accounting Manager, Payroll) vs. the higher level “strategic thinkers” (Controller, CFO, VP of Finance). These “doer” roles have responsibilities companies can’t live without, so when someone leaves they need to backfill the seat.
As we enter the market recovery phase, we anticipate many similarities to that of a great auto race like the Indianapolis 500 which was supposed to take place over the past Memorial Day weekend.
You don’t start the race cars at zero and go to 220 mph instantly. Instead the cars (companies) will come out behind the pace car for a rolling start where they will warm up their tires, check their engines, and have their drivers (employees) get focused on coming back into the office. After a couple warm up laps (phased reopening), the cars will gain comfort and move to green light racing again.
Once this happens, there will be a tremendous amount of hiring because companies will increase headcount after they have had to lay people off or furlough others. Adding to the complexities, many large companies have reduced their internal recruiting teams, therefore limiting their ability to locate, interview, and hire talent quickly. It won’t be as simple as just calling their previous people back as there has been a reshuffling of the deck.
The race of 2020 has certainly been interesting thus far. We still may have yellow flags (W-shaped recovery) in the coming months, but we are all moving towards getting the race going again brick by brick similar to that of the Start/Finish line at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.