Economies rise and economies fall - it's a fact of life most adults have come to accept. Unfortunately, when the economy turns ugly, often so to does the recruiting department. Historically the response to economic crisis has been cost containment, but what used to happen in the past wasn't always good for the business or necessarily a wise practice to continue.

Due to globalization, changes in workforce demographics, and extreme advances in technology, things like product patents, proximity to the customer, and brand matter much less than they once did. Today what truly enables an organization to survive is its ability to recruit, motivate, and retain talent capable of producing a never-ending stream of innovation. Making that possible often requires constantly rebalancing the workforce, and laying off obsolete blocks of talent while acquiring new blocks that bring new skills and capabilities.

Cost-containment efforts including hiring freezes and layoffs can easily decimate a company's talent acquisition capability, something that in the new economy is the equivalent to cutting an organization off at the knees. Now more than ever before organizations need to closely consider how they can leverage talent acquisition in down times to beat the local market and stave off their global competitors. For those who cannot adjust to the changing times and put talent acquisition out front as a key business strategy the future is clear, it's called irrelevance.

During this session, Dr. John Sullivan will address how organizations should adapt their talent acquisition strategies to fit both the economic cycle and their organizations business cycle. He'll tackle such difficult topics as:

• How to protect the recruiting budget
• How to attract talent when job security is an issue (i.e. following layoffs and bad press)
• What activities individual recruiters should focus their efforts on
• How to demonstrate the dollar value of recruiting efforts.

This is a session no one who touches the recruiting profession should miss. The time to abandon business as usual is now. Enterprises around the world are screaming for HR practices that manage to the new realities of business, not those left over from the industrial age. Protect your profession, protect your career, focus on business first, and recruiting second.