Instead of enjoying the luxury of cherry-picking laid off talent, employers should prepare for the lack of qualified workers; which is a VERY soon reality.
With so many layoffs, so many cutbacks and so much economic uncertainty, it seems unlikely that your company's biggest need is recruiting. Yet, for companies seeking to stay competitive (in the coming months especially), a proactive staffing initiative is imperative to ward off the phenomenon known as "Jobseeker's Revenge."

Jobseeker's Revenge is what will happen once the economy rebounds from recession and the pendulum swings away from being an employer's market. Active Jobseekers will increasingly have more options and passive candidates will be in a position to demand more while giving less. Remember the dot-com frenzy of yesteryear? I predict a much more harrowing experience looming; why? With the startups, you had basically one niche of all businesses getting most of the attention. You heard about the crazy salaries, unusual perks and instant notoriety that made would-be millionaires into "optionaires" in just a few months. For a lot of people, it was a wild ride that was great while it lasted. However once the dot-coms bombed and reality set in, the security of working for a Fortune 500 bluechip dinosaur became the most sought after flavor of the month.

Now imagine the same type of dot-com frenzy across multiple industries nationwide: Caregivers, Drugmakers, GeneHunters, Law Enforcement, manufacturing, construction, HVAC technicians, Engineering (software, mechanical, aerospace, civil and structural), Computers (from system analysts and support specialists to database administrators), Finance & Accounting and Energy (petroleum engineers, geologists and geophysicists). Now imagine that there is a shortage of qualified help for these jobs, oh say... a deficit of 6 million workers! Now imagine that in the midst of this "qualified worker" drought, you have to compete with not only your peers but EVERYONE; as all companies in business need qualified help and are more than willing to train. Can you feel your hair falling out already?

But with so many people out of work today, chances are your company has a long grace period before any of this should concern you, right? Wrong! Several articles suggest that Jobseeker's Revenge is imminent and that the war for talent will become a very harsh reality for companies in the 3rd quarter; even moreso as the Babyboomer Generation begins to retire over the next FEW years. As an Entrepreneur or Executive concerned with her/his company's future, a proactive staffing initiative beats the best catch-up effort anyone could make.

May I suggest an action plan?

1. Take a concensus of how the brass in your office perceives the company in the short and long term.

2. Ask the sales force to poll their accounts on how your company is perceived by your clients.

3. Ask every level of your staff how they perceive your company.

4. Study the trends of your industry and forecast what you will need in the future.

5. From the amassed data, visualize the perfect worker in terms of professional background, and future needs of the company.

6. Create a marketing plan that will attract these types of folks and court them early.

7. Create a database of people you would love to hire, even if you can not do so now.

8. Send a newsletter to them once a quarter so they will not forget you.

9. Incentivize your subscribers to stay on your list in some way. (Perhaps, giving them first refusal of jobs offered before they are availed to the public?)

Is this a lot of work? Not really, but it all comes down to perception. Is it better to spend X amount of dollars to hire a Recruitment Strategist now and prepare for the "winter" of Jobseeker's Revenge or "pay later" for retained and contingency firms to find needles in a haystack? It is my opinion that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. My advice to you is to figuratively stock up on aspirin now before the migraine of the talent wars resurface.

About the Author

Jim Stroud is a Recruitment Specialist and the author of "How Do I Find A Job When the Economy Sucks?" a very successful e-book of job search strategies. It is available from his website at http://www.JimStroud.com. He can be reached by email at: jimstroud@jimstroud.com.