When you want to get an insider's look at The War For Talent, executive recruiters tend to be the best sources. They are on the front lines of who's hiring, who's not, and what firms and top talent are looking for from each other. To get that insight, Consulting's One-on-One sat down with Sandra Miles, a veteran recruiter and President/CEO of Miles Employment Group.
Consulting: As a veteran recruiter, how does the current employment market compare to prior economic cycles?
Miles: I've been in staffing industry for 25 years and I've never seen things as bad as they are now. The massive layoffs began just after Christmas of 2008 and it has been a slow and painful ride back up.
Consulting: Why has hiring been so slow to recover?
Miles: What we're seeing today is a readjustment that's been at least five years in the making. What we saw, starting in 2005, was a massive appetite for talent. People were getting into management roles, making incredibly high salaries, extraordinarily fast. And in many cases, they didn't have the background or capacity to handle their new roles. Companies were grabbing talent, without training and mentoring them. And they moved them up too quickly. They'd give them new titles because they were afraid that a competitor would lure them away with a higher title and $10,000 higher salary. It was a period of incredible staff growth and many companies couldn't handle it.
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