Happy New Year!
The start of the New Year is a great time to reset ourselves – both personally and professionally. It’s a great time to prepare for what the coming months have in store for us. We spent the last three years preparing for tough times. Do we know how to be ready for good times?
The economic signs are improving. It’s been so rough for so long it can be tough to see good things happening. There are concrete, positive signs. Housing sales made another improvement this month and unemployment claims fell again. They are now below 400,000, the level most economists say we need to spur real growth. We are also seeing more people making and closing deals.
It could be a sneaky good year. Little moves – all made in the same direction – can make a huge difference. All of us making small gains…sneaky good.
Are you poised to take advantage? The past two years taught us how to do much more with less. We are all very leveraged, having cut our overhead to the bone while maintaining our core operations. This leverage got us through the tough times, but it leaves us ill-prepared to handle future growth.
It’s time to position for possibilities. It was painful to reduce costs. We cut and squeezed every penny out of our operations; sometimes by cutting our friends’ jobs or eliminating promising operations. We don’t want to return to where we were, so we need to find new ways to expand without adding overhead or complication.
Talent will be key in these new solutions – finding and engaging the right talent at the right time. Traditional methods will not provide the speed or flexibility necessary to meet future challenges. Hiring permanent talent adds to structural costs, takes extended time, and carries significant hiring risks. Consultants can come in quickly, but it can be difficult to assess whether a particular person or firm truly has the expertise you need.
Interim talent, delivered by a trusted partner, provides the specific skills needed in the situation quickly enough to take advantage of any opportunity. We at Vallon invest over 40% of our time knowing the Twin Cities talent market. We use those hours to identify the best talent, so that we can respond – usually within 48 hours – when our clients have needs. In addition, we take the risk out of every engagement.
It’s time to be ready for a sneaky good year. All of us at Vallon are ready to help!
Happy New Year!
The Changing World of Employment 
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