Lisa Simpson
Sep 24,2009
In: Finance

Recession Has Led to Workers Pick Up More Skills with Added Responsibilities

busy_worker

In these hard days the workers are just too happy to get a regular pay cheque. But the employee has other realities to face – the frustrated workers are snooping around for better opportunities and may soon be hijacked by a rival firm when the economy gets back on rails.

As per the findings of a job-listing firm, Human Capital Institute in conjunction with Monster.com, 8 out of 10 employers feel that the workers are content just to have a job. This is the feeling of 53% of the employees. 17% of the employees are nursing plans of changing jobs within the forthcoming 12 months according to SnagAJob.com. From the time of the start of the recession in December 2007 nearly 6.7 million have become jobless. Those who took over from their colleagues will find it easy to jump from one ship to another because they have expanded their job skills said Jennifer Kahnweiler of the firm.

According to a survey done by Accountemps, over 50% of the workers of the workers who got involved in new projects learnt to take over new responsibilities during the recession period. This has made this group of workers to be much in demand. Beth Carvin of Nobscot, a firm dealing with retention management, said, “It’s not going to be difficult for some companies to poach workers.”

Lisa Rowan an analyst with a technology and research firm IDC said, “Those who survived the downsizing may have gained new skills, but many also endured “shoddy treatment … including a lack of communication about layoffs.” On top of this they had to endure extra financial slaps like trimmed benefits and slimmer pay packets.

The outcome is that it is not unknown to many that employers often give the last priority to the interests of workers. This has put them on the alert and they are updating their resumes, attending all networking events and waiting to pounce on the next better job available.

Kahnweiler commented, “There is going to be fallout as far as the way people manage their careers, particularly when you’ve been laid off. It changes you in very significant ways. I think after something like that, you will always look over your shoulder.”

Commenting on employers the experts dealing with Human Resources say they should focus on learning how to retain workers by assisting them to develop new sills and by making work schedules more flexible.”