After huddling in our bunkers for much of the past 18 months we look forward to restoring growth and prosperity to our companies. Many firms will find, however, that they are unable to harness the early breezes of expansion due to resource constraints that are a direct result of recent knee-jerk staff reductions.
Peter Cappelli, Wharton management professor and director of the school's Center for Human Resources observed that the recent economic crisis forced many managers to focus only on the short-term. Slaves to quarterly performance expectations, departments cut employees with little concern for the long-term impact of layoffs. In many cases they were forced to sacrifice core competencies resulting in a devastating brain drain.
As an expert on post-recession employment recovery Cappelli knows that it will be some time before hiring begins again in earnest. "Companies will always wait to see that the demand is there because the fixed cost of hiring isn't...