While listening to the radio this morning, I heard a business columnist commenting on possible job and hiring trends for 2010 and he suggested the following:
Replacing low performing workers: Companies often attempt to do this on an ongoing basis anyways but with 2010 expected by many people to at least be better than 2009 and at best mark noticeable improvements economically, it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise that companies will take a look at people who are possibly better than employees that they have currently. Certainly, people who work in a sales environment are just one example of where poor performers might be replaced by new staff who have a track record of high performance elsewhere and would be expected to outperform the incumbent.
Flexible work environments: This has been a trend already but many companies who don’t currently offer this sort of arrangement might look at offering this in the near future. Flexible work arrangements can mean various things such as:
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1. Reducing the work week from 5 days to 4 days (ie. staff stay an extra 2 hours each day from Monday-Thursday and get Fridays off)
- 2. Reduced hours for staff to save the company money
- 3. Work-from-home arrangements on a part-time (ie. several times per week) or fulltime.
Having staff working from home or having a home office-type system might mean that a company can save significant money by reducing the number of offices they own/lease and operate by having staff work from home rather than in an office whose costs are borne by the company.
Rehiring laid off workers: Certainly many in the auto industry are expecting/hoping that they’ll fall into this category if they were laid off in the latter half of 2008 or sometime in 2009. In other industries rehiring staff who were laid off temporarily might be something that companies are able to do as they see their business turning around and see business starting to pick up.
An interesting dilemma in this case is occurring right now with the General Motors-owned automobile manufacturer Saab who GM is trying to sell. Saab was close to being sold to another company but when the sale fell through, GM decided to scrap the brand. Instead, GM is now negotiating to sell Saab to another company and instead of thinking about shutting the company down, Saab is also apparently planning on picking up production again since they have orders to fill.
