Who's hiring who?

There are signs that things are getting better, such as increased freight volumes, firming, and even increasing, rates and carriers getting more equipment (for example, Emirates) and so on. And there’s more hiring going on.  Is this the start of a recovery, or just a temporary upward blip that will head south again? From a hiring standpoint, it’s hard to tell. 

There are a lot of good people out there, but there are a lot more not so good ones. Consequently, any open position receives a torrent of applications. Prior to the recession, in response to open positions, good CVs to bad ones would come in at a 1 to 10 ratio. Currently that ratio is 1 to 100. This happens for a couple of reasons: one, there are a lot of people out of work; and two, good people are staying put. 

The “out-of-works” respond to anything – even if it doesn’t fit their skill set. Good people would rather be secure than make a change when times are tough. In normal times, if a job didn’t work out, they would be able to pick up something else quickly. If you were good, there would be an employer out there who would want you. Not anymore. If you’re good and make the wrong move, you could be out of work for a while. 

You would think that having lots of people to choose from would make it easier to find the right person. Wrong. It makes it significantly harder. It takes considerable time, and expertise, to filter through the flood of applicants. In fact, many recruitment firms have to “search” (proactively network to find the right person) for lower-level positions than they normally would. 

Another recessionary phenomenon is the amount of overqualified applicants applying for positions. You might assume that an employer would jump at the chance to bring in someone with more experience and ability than he or she is looking for. Wrong. Employers, as a rule, don’t want someone overqualified. 

Even if it means that individual would have a lot more going for them than the salary merits. There are a couple of reasons why this happens. One, the employer feels that the overqualified employee would hang around only until offered a better job. And two, often the hiring manager is less experienced than the overqualified individual. Although it might be better for the company, he/she feels intimidated and doesn’t want someone working for them who knows more than he/she does. 

There are a few reasons why the logistics job market is improving, which may have nothing to do with an improving economy. Some companies overcompensated for the downturn and trimmed their staffing levels more than needed. Their employees are overworked and overtired, so employers are cautiously addressing that imbalance by bringing in more people. 

Business development – what used to be called sales – is another reason. Companies realise they need to generate more business and they won’t achieve that if they don’t have sales people out there actively trying to make it happen. As a result, sales openings are much higher proportionally than they were before the recession. There is a twist to this development: it is mainly smaller companies and not the big multinationals that are doing the sales hiring. 

Expanding into other service areas also contributes to an increase in hiring. In order to generate more revenue, logistics providers are offering services that are not core – freight forwarders and shipping lines are providing 3PL services, 3PLs are moving into freight forwarding and so on. For this to happen, they need people with different and, hence, more hiring. Only time will tell if the increased hiring is an end to the recession or just a temporary blip. 

Larry Woelk is International & Business Development Director
for recruitment search firm BiS Henderson.       www.bis-henderson.com