Our country is in a recession.  That's what everyone is saying.  And with my limited economic expertise, I am in no position to argue.  Do you know how it's impacting you?

There's no question that some people are being hit pretty hard as they lose their homes due to this mortgage fiasco.  But, I think that we need to be cautious.  As an HR leader, there's temptation to over react when times like these are upon us.  Last week, I participated as a panel member of HR leaders for a podcast to respond to questions regarding how the down economy is impacting HR.  One panelest began talking about how people will "hunker down" in their current jobs even if they hate them because they are scared of leaving.  This should make it tougher to recruit.  On the other hand, another panelist suggested that companies are scaling back on hiring, so there are fewer jobs.  In fact, many companies are laying people off.  The net result should mean that there are more people in the market to fill our open jobs--easier to recruit.  These assertions came with suggestions as to how we should respond to these changing conditions. 

My perspective on this is that you should keep managing your business as normal and watch your metrics for indicators that things are changing.  Turns out, despite the fact that my team recruits a couple hundred people per month in locations across the US, we haven't seen any change in our ability to execute on this hiring at this point.  We are still having to work just as hard to find people and they are still just as willing to move jobs when we do. 

I'm not here to suggest that the down economy isn't having an impact on business, but rather that we can't simply assume that it is.  Know what impact it is having.  Don't guess or assume.  If it's not impacting you now, that's great.  Keep on, keeping on.  But, start planning for the impact to come in the near future.  As HR professionals, it's our job to manage our areas and make decisison based on real data and evidence.

-Jason