Home»Can You Recruit in a Low Churn Economy?

Can You Recruit in a Low Churn Economy?

| November 9, 2016 2:08 pm

Independent of who you voted for yesterday, the next President will face some interesting economic challenges. Some of these challenges, like “jobs and wages” and “low economic mobility,” have been in the news and debated about to the nth degree and while they all effect the life of a Recruiter, I was struck by the underreporting on declining economic dynamism.

Economic dynamism describes the constant motion within an economy like the founding or destruction of companies and the movement of workers from one geography or industry to another for better opportunities. I have benefited from the entrepreneurship of others and grappled with the difficulties of starting a new business but the area of economic dynamism that I had not greatly considered is the one that most significantly effects my recruiting activity on a day to day basis, churn. Churn is, “job turnover that doesn’t change the overall number of employees at a company.” For the health of the economy we want to see people leaving jobs for better positions. Often that means lower level positions open for the unemployed or a company become more efficient by increased worker utilization. There are other, even broader, positive economic effects like, wage growth, and even long term career prospects of individuals but the articles I linked do a much better job explaining the impact from that point of view.

As for this post, I just want to briefly describe how a knowledge of churn in a low churn economy could help a recruiter either identify eager talent or craft a better narrative around why a prospective candidate should entertain the position you’re pitching them. Consider a requisition qualification conversation with a hiring manager. You are asking all the basic questions about what the position requires, trying to build a profile of a candidate, and in addition you might ask to build a profile of someone would look like if they were considering this position not as a job change but as a promotion. Would that candidate look any different? What requirements might they learn on the job? Similarly, when speaking with a candidate you might consider using the language of churn by framing your position not just as a change but as a promotion, “You are here, soon you’ll be there, and here’s what your next position could be.” For those of us that are also involved in workforce planning, it would be helpful to consider the effects of churn when identifying employees that might be a threat to leave and those that deserve to take on new challenges.

With two obvious examples taken, can you come up with something else?

John Rice is the Director of Business Development at NSS RPO, a consulting firm that provides on-site and virtual recruiting professionals. Contact NSS RPO to learn about how we can help your organization meet and exceed it’s hiring goals.