Is the Credit Crunch putting your job at risk?

As the credit crunch continues, people have been asking me what I thought it would mean for the recruitment market, in particular the impact on their own job hunt. As ever, this is a tough question that will differ between sectors and job types. As uncertainty about the state of the financial markets persists it will of course translate to uncertainty in the recruitment market. I think I can however, make some general comments on where we see recruitment market going.

At times like these, firms tend to baton down the hatches and even go as far as recruitment freezes. Often this is simply to provide it’s shareholders with the confidence that they are looking to reduce their costs at a time where revenues may be down. Note the redundancies in the financial sector – Citi, Merrills, Morgan Stanley and even Goldmans are laying people off. One thing is clear though, forward looking companies will not want to stop recruiting for too long. Hiring may reduce, but it is certainly not going to go down to zero. Specific sectors in the financial markets are still hiring; people who have been layed off are finding new jobs. Not only will their be positions to fill in the short term, whenever we come out of this downturn (and will come out of it eventually), companies need to have the right skills and numbers of good people to be able to cope with any upturn in business. Rarely is a recruitment freeze the answer to cost cutting – coming out from a downturn like this and retaining and strengthening skills can provide a great competitive advantage. Right now employers may be looking for people with skills in strategic in cost cutting and efficiency gains, that can help organisation become leaner when they most need it.

I think it is fair to say that we are going to seeing more candidates chasing fewer jobs. To be competitive you need to give yourself the best start by preparing as much as possible, network, meet people working at the company and differentiate yourself from the competition. Employers have a different challenge – they must filter even more candidate applications before they find the right candidate. With extra focus on costs, now is not the time to make hire the wrong person. If you’re an employee of one of these hiring companies I’m sure you’ll see the internal ‘employee referral scheme’ being promoted, which that if your participate and refer the right candidate you can earn a little extra from the employee referral reward. Direct-hire strategies like referral schemes are an employers most valuable weapon delivering high quality, pre-screened candidates to the interview process at a greatly reduced cost compared to traditional recruitment methods.

Companies regard their people as their most important asset. Never has this been more true. It is the one thing that will truly provide a competitive advantage. I hope that the current uncertainty is not made worse by pessimistic reports that could see the impact of the credit crunch spread out from the financial markets and prolong this blip any more than is necessary. Employers must not loose sight of their longer term strategic goals when reviewing their current agenda. There are certainly going to be jobs out there, and if you are a good candidate there will still be opportunities

Expensive mistakes! The Top 5 worst financial recruitment mistakes ever?

We always knew that recruiting the wrong person can be an expensive business. Spare a thought for the recruiters who decided to take these 4 guys on board. Between them they racked up losses for their firms of over £5.6bn. I think we can class that as a bad recruitment mistake?

£3.7bn – In pole position, Jerome Kerviel - Société Générale. By far the biggest recruitment mistake. This loss dwarfs any single loss by any of our other entrants in the list. It is alleged that he was making trades way above his authority level since 2007. He was making up losses to offset the gains he was making, which ended up backfiring but it was too late to stop huge losses for the bank. It’s said that he worked alone and didn’t profit personally from what he was doing. The investigation into exactly what happened continues…

£827m – he held the top slot for a few years, Nick Leeson – Barings Bank. The most famous rogue trader in our list, Nick Leeson, brought down one of the grandest names in British banking. Leeson initially made large profits for the bank by dealing in derivatives and futures. But after running up losses, he hid his bad trades in a single account in 1992. These losses grew over several years, forcing him into a series of increasingly desperate but unsuccessful attempts to make the money back. Leeson finally fled in February 1995 after a bet that the Tokyo stock market would rise went badly wrong.

£551m – In it for the long run, Toshihide Iguchi - Daiwa Bank. Toshihide Iguchi, one of its senior US executives, confessed in a 30-page letter that he had lost $1.1bn through unauthorised bond trading. Iguchi ran up the losses over several years. Having risen from the back offices to become a trader in 1984, a lack of segregation within his division meant he could hide his losses from his superiors while he tried, and failed, to trade back to profit. Following his confession, it emerged that he had conducted the cover-up for over a decade

£355m – A lesson in following your gut instinct, John Rusnak – Allied Irish Bank. Betting mainly on the Japanese yen in the mid 90s, Rusnak used fictitious trades to hide his losses over several years. Some outsiders suspected that all was not well, with Goldman Sachs reportedly refusing to do business with Rusnak. But it took until 2002 before routine checks finally uncovered the true nature of the bank's exposure.

This is the first in a regular series of some of the world’s worst recruiting mistakes. For example, some of England’s Football team managers may be in the running, or perhaps some politicians that have caused more harm than good. Let us know of any expensive mistakes you can think of. Write to us at the.mole@thecareermole.com

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