Greetings from Gardner Resources Consulting, LLC: 

Beginning in August, we’ve seen a significant improvement in the number of contract job opportunities. The competition to recruit the best candidates has certainly intensified as the market has heated up.  This month’s article is a continuation of our discussion on how to find the best available candidates among those who may not have been gainfully employed for a period of time.

ARTICLE: FINDING THE BEST CANDIDATES

The best candidates are out there if you know how to find them.

Top performers are out there if you’re willing to expend the effort necessary to find them among the ranks of the unemployed.  Some employers believe that hiring the unemployed is bad for business.  They perceive unemployed candidates as weak performers or uncommitted workers.  They worry that jobless candidates come with rusty skills or that by hiring them, they’re just picking from the bottom of the barrel.  In booming economic times, these perceptions may have had some merit. But in today's market, where one in ten people are out of work, there are a multitude of explanations for why someone may be unemployed.  Many companies have been devastated by the economic downturn; layoffs have cut deep, and have left excellent employees struggling to find work.

Yet, while the economy has been difficult, it does not explain every case of unemployment.  For every top performer that was reluctantly let go, the recession also provided companies an opportunity to “restructure entire departments”.  In today’s recovering market smart organizations will want to fairly evaluate unemployed candidates and zoom in on those who are excellent hires, regardless of their current employment status.  Here are a few tips that will help you look at the unemployed with open eyes and see the whole picture when considering out-of-work candidates.

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