You tell me. How do we prepare for the recovery when it comes?

I am rather proud to be a Life Member of the RCSA in Australia, an accolade awarded to very few industry veterans who are judged to have made some contribution to the staffing industry in Australia and New Zealand.

I often wonder how I sneaked in to this august group, and so I am delighted that the RCSA have asked me to speak at a series of breakfast seminars in all major Australian and New Zealand cities over the coming months.

The topic is a challenging one. Below, an extract from the event marketing blurb

“Riding the Recovery”

Greg Savage Seminar on how to thrive in 2010

Having survived four recessions and benefited from the recovery on each occasion, Greg Savage will present his thoughts on how to prepare for the recovery, and what steps you need to take to benefit from the opportunities that will emerge as hiring demand starts to surge.

This session will be a fascinating blend of facts, forecast, tips and tricks, designed to give you real strategies to survive a depressed economy and to thrive as the market recovers.

Greg will share what steps you should be taking right now to position yourself for success, and he will also explore the many pitfalls and errors typically made by recruiters and business owners as the good times begin to roll again.

It’s hard to focus on ‘the recovery’, when many recruiters are battling just to survive, but it is something we should all be thinking about, because when the upswing comes, we will presented with a range of fabulous opportunities. Opportunities to increase market share, grow margins, acquire new clients, sell new services and scale to new heights in terms of billings and profits.

But not everyone will have the resources, the know-how or the energy to take advantage of a rebounding market, so a session on how the recovery might play out, and how we can prepare, might be very welcome.

But I am asking for your help!

What I am looking for is your input as to the content of the seminar. What’s scaring you about the business environment right now? What’s changed that you are not sure how to deal with? What specific question do you have regarding how to equip yourself for the upswing?

If you live in Australia or New Zealand, you will hear your issues addressed at the seminar in your city. However everyone is welcome to send in questions because I will post my thoughts on the most compelling issues on this very blog.

Simply post a comment at the end of this blog post – or if you prefer – drop me an email at gsavage@aquent.com

In the meantime mark your diaries and contact the RCSA to book your attendance.

http://www.rcsa.com.au/event/month/2009?title=Riding+the+recovery&event_start=&event_end=&tid_1=All

· Wednesday 19th August – Perth

· Thursday August 20th – Adelaide (luncheon)

· Wednesday 11th November – Melbourne

· Friday 13th November – Sydney

· Friday 20th November – Brisbane

· Week commencing 22nd February, 2010 – New Zealand (To be confirmed)

  • Posted by Greg Savage
  • On June 30, 2009
  • 1 Comment
Tags: Hiring Trends, Recession, Recruitment Consulting Skills

1 Comment

Greg Savage
01/07/09 2:20 PM, "Richard Elstone" wrote: Greg, Your blog is the first recruitment blog that I have subscribed to and I think its great. As a 20 year recruitment veteran I have seen 2 major recessions and if there is one thing that common to both its the fact that the recovery (when it happens) happens very quickly. Recently I read found Geoff Morgan and Andrew Bank's book "Flourish & Prosper" in the library and decided to read it. In it they give an account of the 1991 recession. You will remember that at the time they bought back Morgan & Banks from the Select Group for $1 million (having sold it to the group 18 months before for $16 million). When they bought back the company Australia was in the depths of the "recession we had to have" - thanks Paul - and no one knew when it was all going to end. Geoff and Andrew said in their book that the recovery happened just 10 weeks - yes that's right - 10 weeks after they bought back the company. Last year I met some executives of Hudson who had worked with the company Morgan & Banks and stayed through to the TMP days and Hudson days, said the recession and coming out of it was the time that many companies (particularly Morgan & Banks) grew sharply. Why? Because many competitors were forced out of the market or over retrenched and so there were less players in the market place to fill the roles that were needed to be filled. And lets not forget that most of those early recession breaking roles were contract or temp roles with employers dipping their toes gently in the water not quite ready to hire permanent staff. My concerns about the reaction of many recruitment companies to the recession are that they seem not to have learned the lessons of previous recessions and made the same mistakes again. Here at HJB we have gone to a 9 day fortnight and reduced staff's salaries by 10%. This sounds great from a cost reduction perspective but you should see our Melbourne and Sydney offices -there are always people on RDOs. It means we are not in front of our clients enough, it reduces morale (not substantially - but enough) and we start to believe that this will never end. So that's a major danger, believing the medicine (reduction in wages and salaries) will fix the problem with the company and the recession, it simply won't. But getting out and seeing our clients and remaining close to them will, because when the upswing happens, it'll happen big time and quickly. Its also time for the Greg Savage's (smile) and Deb Wilson's, Andrew Banks's etc to start talking to the press about the good stuff, planting the ideas about using contractors and temps in times of a recession or recovery to help get things moving. I would be interested to hear your thoughts? Thanks again for your blog - fascinating reading Kind regards, Richard Richard Elstone Manager Accounting & Technology - Incorporating IT Resources Group Hamilton James & Bruce

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