Employment branding and the economic downturn

Zdnet keeps track of staff layoffs in the IT industry. As usual stories of doom and gloom gets all the attention, however the current situation has little resemblance to the last tech bubble. Sure IT job vacancies have dropped, but history is unlikely to repeat itself, at least not just yet.  In 2002 the ICT vacancy Index stood at 100,  currently it stands at 208.7, a drop of 4.6% from last month but twice the number in 2002. By the way, SEEK lists 21,374 IT jobs waiting to be filled. 

Come what may, employers ought to concentrate more on the difficult task of retaining or hiring the best talent , the very people who can insulate them against a downturn, rather than obsesses about an economic climate that they have little control over.

On that note, the current climate is a great opportunity to stand out and build your employment brand. If a company comes out and declares ‘we are aggressively hiring talent regardless of the downturn’  or ‘times are tough, but we are retaining all our staff’, such actions will create a favourable employment brand that will sticks. It is against what everyone else is doing, but that is the very reason why your company is the best place to work. People remember what you do when the times are hard.