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With Credit Tight, Start Ups Better Pick Employees Carefully

To borrow a phrase from the title of a Simply Red song, some years back, “Money is Too Tight to Mention.”   It is a bad news economy, and for those of us who are daring enough to still open the business seciton of the newspaper, everyday more people are being laid off.   Today, the United States Post Office announced it will be laying off 40,000 postal workers.

I suppose this is a bad thing.   Word is the post office was bloated with personnel and from personal observation you could say not all that many were moving like the wind.  And slow.   So slow.   If you wanted to spend an eternity somewhere, try standing in the Post Office line, trying to mail a package.

But then maybe even with the Post Office the loss of 40,000 employers will not go unnoticed.   Mail might be slow in coming to us.   All that direct mail, the fliers.   The bills.   Who wants their bills, anyway?  for those who do   I would say we could switch to private carriers, but then DHL is laying off another few thousand of its employees.

As for the rest of us, with businesses we hope to keep intact during this downturn, we realize the mail is slow and credit is tight.   Reports are coming in that borrowing money has been elevated to an art form.   We hear stat start up businesses are having a really tough time raising any funding.   Even good ideas have gone wanting.  Those who got started on Angel funding are often surviving on a shoe string.

If this is the case, for any of us, really, pick your employees carefully.   For smaller businesses, make sure your employees are versatile.   You will need a few specialists but if you have general office managers, make sure they are possess of any number of skills.  Well rounded people will save you money.   And run background checks to make sure they are not the more nefarious sort of well rounded people who can cost you money.

You must not only think out of the box, but you must also realize you may not have a box to think out of.   but if your workers are performing a variety of tasks, rather than finding new ways to kill time on the Internet, you have a better chance of survival.

Check them out before you hire.

By Gordon Basichis

Gordon Basichis is the Co-Founder of Corra Group, specializing in pre-employment background checks and corporate research. He has been a marketing and media executive and has worked in the entertainment industry, the financial, health care and technology sectors. He is the author of the best selling Beautiful Bad Girl, The Vicki Morgan Story, a non-fiction novel that helped define exotic sexuality in the late twentieth century. He is the author of the Constant Travellers and has recently completed a new book, The Guys Who Spied for China, dealing with Chinese Espionage in the United States. He has been a journalist for several newspapers and is a screenwriter and producer.