[OBO Digest] The job market is shifting, with Entrepreneurs poised to reap the benefits

Why startups may have a unique opportunity to hire top talent

Online Business Owner • January 17, 2023

Welcome back to the latest Online Business Digest, as we edge closer to our big, exciting, and innovating plans for 2023 (and beyond!).

To kick things off this week, we’re covering a major shift poised to benefit a ton of small businesses (and leave many other businesses behind)... the job market.

Following a historically challenging period for business owners looking to hire new staff, entrepreneurs are now seeing an influx of qualified candidates looking for work, significantly increasing the pool and helping set things in motion for small businesses.

This week, we’re covering how these changes affect you and how to get ahead of the curve to capture the best talent while the opportunity is ripe.

Let’s dive in, although don’t forget to share The Digest with your biz besties, clients, and friends so they too can be in the know about what’s happening in online business!

Enjoy,

The OnlineBusinessOwner.com Team

News + Happenings

Smarter Hiring In The Current Job Market

With more hiring potential in the workplace, it’s easy to make the mistake of hiring too quickly. Yet it’s more important than ever to get clear on exactly what you need and resist the urge to pinch your nose while rushing into key personnel decisions.

It’s just as important to not hire the “bad” fits as it is to identify the right ones. There are a few solid principles that can help in this area, with one of the biggest being to…

Hire to fill in your vulnerabilities

Avoid hiring for what you already do well, unless you truly have the capacity to remove yourself from your business.

Instead, look to the future and attempt to anticipate areas where you need skills you currently don’t have.

(or where the time investment simply won’t yield a great enough return for how much attention it consumes for you)

With every hire, it’s essential to build a clear vision for the future and convey it to everyone on the team—just as much as hiring for the right skills.

As tempting as it is to hire an ex-big tech employee who checks all the boxes on paper, ask yourself:

“Does this person model the character traits that are integral to my business?”

If not, move on.

Don’t hire solely for skills; hire for people you can envision growing with 1, 2, 3, 5, or more years into the future.

Scalable companies are built on scalable cultures

It’s typically worth the added effort and time it takes to find the right people.

So where should you start?

Here are some action steps you can take to get things moving:

Get clear on your future needs as you grow so you can better select candidates who will be able to grow with you (not just fill an immediate need).
Screen for candidates you can imagine keeping around for years to come and promoting into roles with more responsibility.
When you hire a new employee or contractor—and throughout their entire time working with you—communicate your long-term vision and how they fit into it and *SHOW* them how they can contribute to something bigger!

That’s all there is to it — so get out there and strike while the opportunity is ripe!

Social Media News + Updates

👥 Meta continues to invest heavily into the Metaverse in 2023 despite concerns expressed by investors.

🔗 LinkedIn will soon offer the ability to post B2B products natively in the platform, allowing entrepreneurs to gain searchable exposure on their offers.

🐦 Twitter explores major updates to its timeline, rehashing old experiments from years prior.

🐦 Twitter Blue enables 1-hour video uploads, up from the previous 10-minute limit.

👥 Facebook introduces new privacy settings, including the ability to prevent other users from seeing what individual accounts are following.

Entrepreneurs Are Filling Positions Faster Than They Have In Months

Over the past year, the job market shifted to heavily favor workers — many companies went (or are still going) months without finding a single hire for key positions.

It wasn’t even a question of good hires; there simply weren’t any people competing for the jobs!

The amount of labor needed stood head and shoulders above the number of people willing to do it.

As a result, businesses around the world took to raising pay brackets, added apprenticeship programs, and took numerous other steps to make positions increasingly attractive to prospective workers.

Finally, after months of low application rates and a general lack of qualified applicants, the job market is beginning to correct.

Why this matters for online business...

Faster hiring means that many of the best, most driven candidates are likely already looking for new work.

Waiting too long to leap into the fray could mean losing out on key hires that could be key in helping you grow your business!

If you’re thinking about potential new roles, consider putting them in motion now rather than later to capitalize on the increase in qualified applicants looking for meaningful work—for more info on the shifting job market, check out this excellent article from Business Report!

Big Tech Is No Longer Getting The Best Employees - Startups Are

Big tech saw massive layoffs in recent months — over 150,000 workers lost their jobs, many of them highly skilled developers, marketers, and more.

Facebook, for instance, recently lost two-thirds of its value and is in the process of laying off 13% of its workforce.

Netflix has already cut roughly 450 jobs.

Google is also slowing its hiring…

And the result of this slowdown is clear:

Not only are most of these ex-tech employees looking for work—a staggering number of them have real-world experience that countless startups could benefit from!

The impact of this goes beyond a temporary change in industry dynamics.

For perhaps the first time in a decade, joining a startup could be a safer option than a tech giant.

WHY THIS MATTERS FOR ONLINE BUSINESS…

Not only is it becoming easier for small businesses to hire, but the quality of the candidate pool is also of a higher quality.

Of course, many of these ex-big tech employees have likely already joined new positions, meaning the pool has thinned quite a bit already...

Which is why it’s important to jump on the opportunity to hire now if you have the capacity to grow.

Plenty of other startups are already ahead of the curve—and their recruiters have busy schedules right now. To discover more about this massive shift in the job market, CNBC has a great article on where the top talent is headed!

In Other News

🌯 Chipotle says it would “rather be loved by customers than feared by competitors”, a stark branding shift from its 2018-era days.

📈 It’s harder than ever to stay relevant in competitive online world — here’s how three of the world’s biggest brands do it.

👩‍⚖️ Google will pay the state of Indiana $20 million for “allegedly deceptive location tracking practices”, though the tech giant didn’t officially admit to any wrongdoing.

YOUR WEEKLY KICK IN THE PANTS

@danielpink

@changing_minds

[OBO Digest] The job market is shifting, with Entrepreneurs poised to reap the benefits

Why startups may have a unique opportunity to hire top talent