A recent wave of widespread layoffs in the IT industry, involving the termination of tens of thousands of employees at Amazon and Meta, has opened up a world of opportunity for businesses that had previously wanted to expand but were unable to do so due to a skills shortage. With the world’s top talent at their disposal, traditional organizations that had previously struggled to update business procedures can now afford to do so. The same established organizations that could never afford to compete with recruiters from trendy Silicon Valley enterprises are now able to intervene and provide IT workers who were let go with a career lifeline.
We think that traditional companies now have a fantastic chance because of the present cutbacks. They may get fresh talent in a less competitive market by hiring from the past ranks of the top digital companies in the globe. With this talent, they can prepare for increasingly tumultuous business environments by transforming their stagnant business models into digitally agile models. We pinpoint the causes of these layoffs in this article. We then go into how businesses outside of the technology industry might take advantage of this unexpected talent inflow.
An End to Overhiring
The overhiring that occurred during the pandemic is being drastically reversed, as we can see. In a letter to staff members about recent layoffs, CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg stated, “At the beginning of Covid, the world moved quickly online and the surge of e-commerce led to outsized revenue growth.” Many others believed that this would be a steady acceleration that would last well after the pandemic…Regretfully, things did not turn out as I had anticipated.
A similar statement explaining a 14% staff decrease was written by Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe: “At the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, the world rotated overnight towards e-commerce.” In comparison to past experiences, we observed noticeably faster growth rates in 2020 and 2021.Now, the world is changing once more.
The abrupt rise in interest rates, which drastically lowered the valuations of businesses whose revenues would not materialize for some time, caught the tech industry off guard. This happens as a result of valuation discount rates rising in tandem with interest rates. Over the past year, the tech-heavy NASDAQ has dropped by almost thirty percent. More daring tech-focused funds have lost 65% of their value, including Cathie Wood’s Ark Innovation fund. Numerous cryptocurrency and fintech funds have failed. All startup activity has stopped, and there have been few initial public offerings. This affects the growth ambitions of capital-hungry tech companies, who are currently winding down their employment in anticipation of growth plans.
However, these difficulties shouldn’t hinder established businesses with strong foundations, at least not as much as they do emerging digital start-ups. The newly fired workers offer a wide spectrum of highly sought-after abilities, in contrast to previous recessions when firms eliminated positions that were no longer essential to business operations. The Alexa division of Amazon, which manages automation, voice technology, and artificial intelligence among other technologies, lay off people. Employees from Twitter’s engineering, data science, machine learning, and ethical AI departments were let go.
A Chance for Conventional Businesses to Update
The epidemic also marked the beginning of a new age in commercial operations. Companies came to the realization that in order to become more flexible, business procedures needed to change. much instance, working remotely calls much more than just doing Zoom meetings from home. These days, managers can operate a bank’s whole foreign exchange trading platform from their homes just as well as from corporate offices.
This deeper and ongoing shift to hybrid work calls for new systems for human resources, reorganized workflows, updated e-commerce platforms, enhanced engineering, enhanced cyber security, and more. Businesses that failed to develop these systems in time for the pandemic can now take advantage of a talent infusion to demonstrate to them how it can be done.
A year ago, a young, ambitious software engineer would have been more likely to work for a cryptocurrency exchange than for a physical store’s online department. Now that software businesses are cutting employees, a physical store, a business with strong foundations but not yet fully modernized, can outbid tech giants in attracting the necessary personnel.
Who Should Your Company Employ?
Hiring traditional firms should prioritize candidates who can assist with the following: automating employee performance management, streamlining supply chain management, streamlining the human resource planning process, automating customer service, automating the analysis and optimization of the customer journey, automating the collection and application of AI-driven insights to improve sales efficiency.
Failures in the digital transformation space include GE, Ford, and Procter & Gamble; successful stories include Target, Nike, Home Depot, Hasbro, and Best Buy. In every instance, the success of the transformation initiatives depended on the personnel.
If you are employed by a traditional company, you ought to take advantage of the recent layoffs to look for candidates that possess the following abilities:
DevOps Experience for customers
Automation in the Cloud
Platforms and products
Data administration, privacy, and cybersecurity
Business issues are usually a result of economic volatility, but digital transformation can help to reduce the majority of today’s challenges. Customers will have to adjust their discretionary spending if, for example, the current inflationary situation persists and we do enter a recession. Retailers can create and leverage technologies, like machine learning and agile systems, to recognize customer preferences and shopping patterns, comprehend purchasing behaviors, modify promotions and special offers, customize product recommendations, modify pricing dynamically, and balance supply with rapidly shifting demand.
Each industry has this chance in one way or another. However, its benefits are limited to your ability to use these technologies in your workforce. Fortunately, tens of thousands of these labor have recently become available.
Steal Workers from Technology Companies
There are other sources of talent besides recently laid-off employees. Employers should also try to snatch up workers who are currently employed but wish to leave precarious roles at digital companies. Employees are increasingly searching for more stable work options as tech companies slash R&D and new projects, head numbers, employee wages and bonuses, and stock options become worthless due to falling stock prices.
Only H-1B Visas are valid for entry into the United States for foreign nationals employed in the technology sector, including those from China and India. In the event that they lose their jobs, they have 60 days to locate new jobs or forfeit their visa and depart the nation. It’s possible that many of these employees who haven’t been let go yet are worried about the future.
Acquire IT Companies in Trouble
Additionally, now is a great time for traditional businesses to buy assets at fire sale rates and acquire innovative companies, particularly those that are having difficulty raising capital to continue operating. Acquihires, or acquisitions made primarily for the purpose of hiring talent, are one type of acquisition. There are start-ups with patents that end up being quite valuable assets for the buyer. Despite having fresh ideas for businesses or even developing a promising brand, some start-ups are unable to implement them widely due to a lack of funding and marketing resources. Now, businesses may harness the value of those priceless assets by purchasing them at a bargain.
History has repeatedly demonstrated that those who seize opportunities and purchase the appropriate resources, clients, skills, and competences at the appropriate prices emerge victorious from downturns and difficult times. One example of such a moment is the current wave of layoffs.