More Than Money

Recruiting management and executive talent in the transportation/logistics world has been as much of a roller coaster ride as the industry itself.  We went from the Covid Freight Bonanza to the Great Freight Recession.  Like most roller coaster rides it’s been a combination of fun, fear and nausea.  That would certainly describe the transportation/logistics job market.  We quickly went from “Help Wanted” to layoffs and hiring freezes.

Overlooked in this mad scramble to hire talent and then reverse course to “right-sizing” are some fundamental changes in the Candidate Market.  These changes have been coming on for the last 10 or 15 years and have now come to define the candidate market.  And when this freight recession ends, and it will end, good luck finding help.

Much has changed and there are a lot of reasons why.  These reasons tend to fall under the heading of “changing expectations”.  I think this is particularly true for candidates who have come of age since 2000.  For management level and above this would be in the 25-45 age range.  They have grown up in a different world; the world of 911, the 2008-2010 recession, mergers and acquisitions, an increasingly polarized nation and, most recently, the Covid Pandemic.  To a large degree these events have shaped their outlook toward work and career advancement.

These candidates are reluctant to trust employers (or recruiters).  They have personally experienced or witnessed the impact of a recession on employment.  The escalation of merger and acquisition activity during the extended era of cheap money following the recession may have created some jobs, but even more job losses.  If this is how the marketplace works, why risk changing jobs or relocating for a career opportunity that is just as likely to evaporate as it is to materialize?  We have a prime age workforce that just doesn’t buy into pursuing career opportunities unless the overall payoff is large, highly probable and immediate.  They have good reason to be cynical about the long-term benefits of sacrificing too much for what may well turn out to be too little.

The offshoots of this are a desire for work-life balance and a resistance to relocation.  Furthermore, to make a job change; it must be the right position, with the right company, in the right place, at the right time…and for the right money.  Most candidates are no longer willing to take a “stepping-stone” job for a modest increase in pay, especially if it involves relocation and does not come with a significant improvement in work-life balance.  And those candidates who are genuinely career driven are looking for a bigger job, more responsibility and a lot more money.  Gone are the days of someone taking a job for a 10-15% increase in compensation.   Perhaps if there is no relocation, that might work.  Otherwise, it needs to be a 25-30% increase which likely puts them above current employees in similar positions.  So that’s not going to work.

For now there are enough unemployed or under-employed candidates who will accept any job if it pays close to what they were previously earning.  But that candidate pool will dry up quickly as the economy improves.  We are also seeing companies hire below “spec” in order to stay within their pay range for the position.  More often than not it does not turn out well for the company or the candidate.

Looking ahead, companies that have the talent will be the winners.  This means developing and retaining that talent.  Companies cannot rely on the marketplace to fill their needs.  This is coming from a headhunter who makes his living recruiting people away from one company to another. There will still be times when going to the market for talent is necessary.  Recruiting, whether internal or third-party, will still be around.  But companies best invest in new people and fill their needs internally.  Finding and hiring talent in the open market is not going to get any easier or more affordable.