War’s Impact on DM Staffing Plans Minimal: Survey

Direct marketers are not using the hostilities in the Middle East as an excuse to change their staffing plans. Sixty-nine percent will keep to their second quarter hiring plans, despite the disruption caused by the war in Iraq.

Only 6% said they will cut head count and 7% will impose a freeze. Another 15% are making their decisions day by day, and 1% is actually planning to increase staff in a direct reaction to the war, according to a survey by Bernhart Associates Executive Search, Owatonna, MN.

“More companies are planning to add to staff and fewer have hiring freezes. If not for war worries, we’d be looking at a much brighter picture,” said president Jerry Bernhart in a statement.

Nearly six in 10 respondents plan to add to staff in the second quarter, up from 55% in January. Twenty percent of those are going to make new hires, while 12.3% said the positions they were looking to fill are replacements for departed employees. Twenty-seven percent indicated their next hires would be both for new and replacement positions, and the rest were unsure.

The direct marketing industry seems to be loosening up. Only 22% of the companies indicated they had a hiring freeze, down from 30% at the beginning of 2003.

But not all of the news was rosy. The survey revealed that 11% were definitely planning to cut staff in the current quarter, and another 12% said they might. “It’s still a tough job market out there, and based on the level of uncertainty seen in this survey it will probably get tougher if the war drags on,” Bernhart said in the statement. “I’ve seen a definite slowdown in activity during the past several weeks.”

Among companies planning to add to staff, the near-term hiring outlook looks best for sales representatives, account managers, analysts and customer service employees. Among those companies responding, direct marketing, advertising and sales promotion agencies topped the list, followed by catalog, list, computer services, lettershop and mailing services, publishers, software, and financial services.

A total of 302 direct marketing companies responded to the survey, which was e-mailed the week of March 24th.