Interesting poll question posed by PSMJ CEO and founder Frank Stasiowski on the LinkedIn networking site, but perhaps what's even more intriguing are the responses.
Frank asked, "With signs of economic recovery, firms are beginning to hire again. Are you?" Answer choices include: hiring right now, advertising but not hiring, hiring within three months, hiring in six to nine months, or not hiring for a long while.
The question has generated 85 responses since Frank posted it two weeks ago. Here's a breakdown of the responses:
Hiring right now (21 percent)
Advertising but not hiring (3 percent)
Hiring within three months (18 percent)
Hiring in six to nine months (30 percent)
Not hiring for a long while (25 percent)
What this means is that roughly three-quarters of firms are either hiring right now or plan to hire sometime in 2009.
What the question does not ask, but should imply is that even if you are not hiring right now, now is the perfect time to post some job openings to see what candidates are out there. And if you find quality resumes coming across your desk (given the overall unemployment rate and the sluggish times seen by the AEC industry, there are plenty of worthy candidates looking for work), you need to bite the bullet and add them to your payroll now.
Remember, if you don't make the hard decisions, it is all but certain that your competition will add to its workforce, putting you at a further disadvantage beyond your already-trimmed employee headcount and disappearing backlog.
How many tea leaves do you need to see (the AIA Architecture Billings Index, three-quarters of firms saying they plan to hire sometime in 2009) before you are convinced the economy is turning around?
Disagree? Drop me an e-mail at ehannan@psmj.com.
Ed
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1 comment:
I wonder how many firms are still terminating positions... I'm hearing lots of non-believers out there that aren't convinced that it's over...
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