With the U.S. economy having shed 7 million jobs over the past 24 months, and the unemployment rate hovering at 9.4 percent, the highest rate in 2 decades, the employment picture is bleak. But you wouldn’t know it from watching Patty Park, vice president of human resources at a division of ITT Corp.
Her days are packed: interviewing candidates, reviewing resumes, and taking phone calls from her unit’s 18 on-the-ground recruiters. This year, Park and her colleagues at ITT’s Defense Electronics & Services sector have helped to hire 420 new employees, and they’re busy trying to fill another 836 open positions. “We’re doing quite a bit of hiring,” says Park, who works in McLean, Va.
That’s putting it mildly. ITT’s defense business is beefing up its ranks because it recently won some big government contracts, such as a surveillance system for a new national air traffic control network and a $1.26 billion space communications contract with NASA. Better yet, it’s in a position to fulfill those contracts without having to outbid rivals for talent because the economic slump is forcing its main rivals to lay off workers.
Park says that many of the 800 or so people ITT Defense will hire this year — most of them scientists and engineers with advanced degrees — have been let go from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and others. All told, U.S. aerospace and defense firms are expected to cut 30,000 jobs in 2009, or about 4.5 percent of the nation’s total; layoffs are likely to continue into 2010, according to a study by Aviation Week and several industry associations.
That’s not the case at ITT, even after it finishes staffing up for contracts already on its books. Park says the firm is also hiring for future business and prospective needs. John Challenger, chief executive of search firm Challenger, Grey & Christmas, calls such proactive hiring a smart strategy. “These days anyone hiring is really in the driver’s seat,” he says. “They can be very selective in who they hire and more thorough in their vetting process.”
While it’s always a challenge for a company like ITT to find talented and qualified candidates, Park says the recession has made her job easier. Not only is the pool of unemployed technical professionals bigger, but many of those people are now willing to relocate for a job, especially to less-glamorous locations. “We’re expanding into areas like Omaha, Neb., and Huntsville. Ala., and we’ve found a large number of mid-career professionals willing to relocate, which is a change from previous years,” Park says. To help lure candidates, ITT Defense often provides generous relocation packages.
In a thriving economy, for instance, a Bay Area engineer hired by ITT might never have chosen to relocate to Fort Wayne, Ind. With both an electrical engineering degree and an MBA, he spent six months in Silicon Valley looking for work. He had hoped to stay in the area or move to Boulder, Colo., but nothing turned up. When ITT approached him, he was thrilled and agreed to take a job working on weather systems at ITT’s growing Indiana facility.
The risk, of course, is that people who now are eager to relocate might jump ship once the job market rebounds. But Challenger thinks it’s a risk worth taking. “There’s never any certainty people will stick with you,” he says, “but if you give them a positive and stimulating work environment, you’ve got a good shot at creating loyal employees.”
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