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A brave new frontier: labour market post downturn

It’s Labour Market week on Bdaily. Here, Lee Grant of Youforce, shares his take on the labour market following the global economic turndown.

Back in early 2008 the money markets, labour markets, and every other global market was booming. Purse strings were relaxed, big bonuses were rife in a number of sectors (not simply the financial sector) and few had seriously forecasted what was to occur in the latter half of the year and the next five that followed.

The global recession touched every element of economies; from the corridors of power and chancellor’s budgets, right down to the way businesses looked at themselves, their operations, their cultures and their staff.

One positive that has come out of the global financial crisis is that it has forced companies to be more efficient and effective in the hiring and maintenance of their work forces. This in turn has had a knock on effect in the wider labour markets.

No longer are companies willing to hire staff to simply fill a gap after another member of staff has moved on: there is increasingly a premium being set on hiring the absolutely right person for the job function that will be expected to be carried out. And when the right person is then hired there is now far more emphasis being put on developing employee skills and the ‘talent management’ of such individuals.

It makes business sense from both employer and employee perspective to nurture and support their growth within an organisation: for the individual it means stability and personal fulfilment within a role, enabling them to develop and further their career in an environment which they are familiar with and know will recognise, reward and develop their skill set.

For the employer, retaining talented individuals within their organisation makes logical business sense too: it means recruitment and employee churn is kept to a minimum, and as the employee develops they become inherently more valuable to the organisation in more than simply quantitative $ signs. Furthermore (and this should not be overlooked) it means that talented individuals remain within the organisational structure and do not end up on the other end of a board room table at a competitor brand.

The streamlining caused by the global economic downturn is easy to see when laid bare like this, however a different playing field, rather a different game, requires a different set of rules and tools to ensure the identified success can be achieved, as opposed to simply being talked about.

There has certainly been a considerable shift in the labour market/workforce over the last two years to mirror the change of the working landscape, and I cannot see it slowing down anytime soon – the catalyst for this change has been the changing role of the employee within the corporate organisation.

Gone are the days where big business ran rough shod over the little employee. In the tough economic climate organisations of all sizes are rapidly realising their most valuable assets are indeed their employees and consequently taking steps to recognise this through the medium of their HR provisions.

As with all technological advances of the last decade, pragmatism, flexibility and increased operational efficiency are at the forefront of where the labour market and workforce is heading. Employees now demand the flexibility and pragmatism afforded by mobile working and iPads, smartphones and 4G; the ability to manage their own professional careers more and enterprise grade applications delivered via VPNs and cloud computing.

Empower the employee through self-service HR and efficient mobile capabilities and all benefit: the employee feels more valued and in control of their own professional destiny, ultimately resulting in them being more efficient and valuable to the company. In turn the company benefits from improved operational efficiency, greater turnover and ROI, whilst at the same time increasing the retention of talented individuals and the fostering of a positive internal culture.

Although the constraints of a recession scarred economy have proved challenging for many organisations the opportunities for employees to manage their own professional progression more and the increasingly flexible and user-friendly ways that they actually ply their trade is having a profound impact on the labour market, and will continue to do so in the future.

The global economic downturn may have proven a huge upheaval for organisations and individuals alike, but the aftermath has left us with organisations that are far more operationally efficient and a workforce and labour market that are far more adaptable, flexible, efficient and (crucially for the worker) empowered – long may this continue.

For more from Labour Market Week, check out; Focus on STEM subjects will drive innovation; overcoming the UK skills gap; why recruiters need to search for the x-factor; recruitment among growing industries; Bdaily meets the labour market advisor; Adzuna’s market perceptions; the ripple affect: the need to invest in skills; the growing number of unemployed over 50s; have we got the right skills; Bdaily meets recruiter Lawrence Mallinson; UK’s jobs market: ’Power to the people“ shift; and early technology education will drive digital economy.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lee Grant .