Help wanted. Apply in July.

The economic recovery is not going to be led by the President or by Congress. The recovery will be led by employers. By entrepreneurs who take the risks needed to innovate and grow and prosper. Right now, too many people are complaining about the banks and the tight credit market and the roller-coaster stock market. Too many employers have thrown in the towel, and have laid off half a million workers since Election Day in a desperate attempt to cut costs.

Employers, like almost everyone else, have focused too much on how to weather the recession and not enough on how to manage the recovery. Because the recovery will come. How are you going to get back to being an employer of choice when you laid off thousands of workers just months before?

It's time for employers to take a stand. Here's how to start:

Run a help-wanted ad. Not just a small classified ad in minuscule agate type. Instead, take out a display ad in your local paper — but not in the help-wanted section. Instead, choose Metro. Or Sports. Or even the weather page. (You should be able to negotiate a good price. The economy, you know.)

Put your company logo in it, large and in color. And write this:

HELP WANTED

We need motivated, professional workers to help our company grow in the upcoming economic recovery. Please apply in July, sending your résumé and cover letter to the address below. You can spend part of the next three months researching our company and making your submission perfect and unique. We can't wait to meet you!

Then watch as your company becomes one of the leaders of the recovery. People will talk. You might even find a need to hire sooner.

Comments

[Dan Erwin]

Intriguing post. I have no doubt but that companies and entrepreneurs will have major input into the recovery. However, from my perspective, I'll go with a McKinsey advisor, Matt Miller, who argues that only government can save business. Business instinctively loathes the idea that it needs government to step up; but it does.

The notion that only business is needed to bring recovery is a dead idea.

[Jay Shepherd]

Dan, do you actually have an argument for why "only government can save business," other than you heard it from some guy at McKinsey? If you have some thought-out rationale for your statist solution, post it and I'll put it up here and we can have a discussion. "McKinsey says so" is not an argument.

[Wally Bock]

I read this post differently than Dan. For me the core was that there will be a recovery and it's a good idea to be ready for it.

[Dan Erwin]

By no stretch of the imagination do I think of a McKinsey guy as evidence. Instead, I think it's amusing that a highly capitalist org has rolled over on the issue of gov't involvement.

The rationale is complex...here are some examples in bits and pieces. I believe that the notion that financial markets can regulate themselves has been laid to rest. I was appalled at Greenspan's idiocy regarding business regulation--an idiocy which he has since admitted.

Soaring health care and pensions have become an unsustainable drag on business competitiveness. Corporate abandonment of these costs will leave millions of people vulnerable, and I'm not interested in a revolt. So, the old answers don't add up.

Though it cuts against traditional ways of corporate thinking, it will be necessary for government to pick up more of the social welfare burden. What intelligent alternative remains?

The caricature of socialism stinks and is wrongheaded. That line is generally taken by Republican partisans who fear that any expansion of government's role helps the Democrats and hurts them.

I can hear the groans from some exec suites. First the Wall Street Bailout, now this. My point is that it's not necessarily a bad thing.

The key to making this transition successful it to have government ramp up its role in health care and pensions in economically rational ways that don't bring the feared downsides.

The example is right in front of our noses: the mortgage interest deduction. Uncle Sam promotes home ownership with this subsidy w/o telling people what kind of house they need to buy, how many rooms, etc. This kind of voucher approach to services--through which gov't makes subsidies available to those who need them and helps set up the market so it meets public goals can apply in lots of situations.

That's just a start, but since I work with senior execs at some of the leading companies in the country--check my client list--I have entre to the inner sanctum...where they are nearly all saying gov't is going to have to assist us with health care and pension problems. So cool your jets.

[Jay Shepherd]

Three hundred fifty-four words and I still can't find an argument for why "only government can save business." Maybe you left it in the inner sanctum. Thanks for your contribution, though.