Tips for overcoming challenges in a talent-constrained recession

The new year began with a curveball. Normally, when economic troubles occur, high unemployment follows. That’s not the case this time around: there are plenty of jobs that still need filling. This has created a rare talent-constrained recession, leading analysts such as Forrester to encourage IT leaders to maintain employee numbers.

This is especially true of companies that have committed significant resources towards creating a positive employee experience. In doing so, they’ve been able to attract candidates and retain skilled personnel. By taking a step back, a hard-earned reputation is tarnished and a useful recruiting tool diminished. The following takes a look at talent issues in the year ahead accompanied by some tips to overcome them.

People and productivity

Hiring will dip. But keep in mind that cuts can easily end up overburdening remaining employees, resulting in burnout and a toxic environment that slows productivity. With budgets tightening, CIOs will also need to improve IT productivity in order to support company initiatives. That said, creating focus for each team member will be essential. And if critical business capabilities aren’t up to par, a more cost-efficient route than hiring could be to invest in bolstering existing platforms.

Getting to work

Ramping employees up in 2023 will be impacted as time and resources are scaled back. This will make greater onboarding efficiency vital. Consider your current state of documentation, backlog of work, and capacity to onboard effectively with your existing team. Work-life balance for your existing employees will also remain a high priority, so companies should be ready to show flexibility around remote and hybrid schedules, which can then help reduce employee burnout. Further, with the possibility of employees coming and going, keeping tabs on assets like company phones and laptops is key to avoiding unnecessary risk.

Handling demand

Leaders must consider how to handle business demands with lower capacity. While not all companies will have the budget for full-time hires, bringing on contractors for months or even a year can provide the flexibility to manage lulls and peaks. Additionally, a healthy vendor management function can help keep work moving forward and add to a company’s resources.

Decision time

In recent years, technology advancement and data analytics have helped leaders successfully speed up internal decision-making. Employees will also require the tools and skills to make rapid decisions that head off issues and capitalize on emerging opportunities. On a related note, some of my industry peers have found that internal bureaucracy depresses business agility and working on pushing data and decisions down to lower levels of the organization can speed up business innovation.

Tools you can use

Along with the pandemic came a host of new tools that many employees now consider must-haves. Unfortunately, it also led to tool sprawl that companies will be looking to better control and consolidate. Don’t be surprised if employees resist, feeling these empowering tools are too valuable to be jettisoned for saving a few dollars. Also, while younger generations are touted as digital natives, few can use SAP, Netsuite or other business standards right off the bat. It takes training to use these tools and systems, further underscoring the need for strong onboarding in 2023. 

Watching the all-stars

While it’s rare to multi-year monolithic projects, the majority of IT projects tend to be approached in phases, allowing for short-term agility. Producing solutions over planned phases can also overcome cuts that otherwise would jeopardize work. For your highly skilled employees closing out projects, there may be concern their talents will be wasted on less exciting and innovative work. In 2023, be sure to take good care of these performers, offer them challenging work, but also take a risk-based approach to documenting this knowledge so it always remains with your company.

A little culture

As someone who is actively hiring, I hear a lot of discussion about job perks and benefits, and make no mistake, candidates hold the cards in this talent-constrained recession. Still, don’t just look for someone with the technical chops to fill a spot. Companies must do their due diligence when hiring to ensure anyone they bring in will fit into their team’s culture. If candidates are only incentivized by remote work or the final salary, it’s always a matter of time before something better comes along.

Candidates motivated by company culture are good prospects - far more likely to work out, stay and flourish. The chance for disruption is less, and when all are pointed in the right direction, the ability to weather storms and make progress is raised.

Nothing sells more than success and happy, satisfied employees remain the most effective recruiting tool of all.

Photo Credit: NicoElNino/Shutterstock

Niraj Shekhar is VP of IT commercial systems for Veeva Systems, the industry cloud for life sciences. With over 20 years of experience, Niraj is focused on customer outcomes, building great teams, fostering environments that build trust and creativity, and delivering business results. He earned his Executive MBA in Business Administration and Management from Ohio State University Fisher College of Business and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Computer Science from York University.