With Christmas looming I wanted to bring festive cheer with an optimistic column about 2009. However, the realist in me is not too sure how uplifting I can be. As I was driving back from a meeting in London I caught the news about the huge number of people (half a million) who lost their jobs in the US in November alone, and was alarmed to hear the commentators pronounce worse to come as recession hits Continental Europe and the UK.

As a specialist in food recruitment, mainly focused on the fresh sector, our clients seem generally to be doing OK with sales but are under massive pressure to maintain their margins as their customers clamour for lower and lower cost prices in an attempt to keep consumer spending up. They are also threatened by competitors looking for every opportunity to increase sales by tendering for business at lower and what some may see as generally unsustainable prices. This will undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on their people strategies as they look at cutting costs wherever they can.

Many people within our sector will be desperately worried about their jobs so I was in a quandary as to what to write to help give people a bit of a boost. But here goes, I will give it my best shot.

In short, we must all help to try and make things better. The directors, owners and senior management teams of our clients are doing their utmost to help drive their businesses forward, but they need the support of everyone in their teams if they are going to achieve their short-term survival goals. So to all who read this column, try and do your bit to help. Get your teams to focus on every aspect of their jobs. If ever there were a time to reduce wastage of resources across all our businesses, then it is now.

Focus attention on effective use of time and effort, and encourage entrepreneurialism and opportunistic behaviour so every opening or prospect is followed up and acted upon. Talk to your existing customers about how you could help them do better and sell more, and keep an eye on all possible new business opportunities.

Train and motivate your teams to go the extra mile and to be better than your competition and, leaving the Christmas turkey aside, I am sure you will come through these tough times leaner, fitter and ready to progress when the economic market is more buoyant.

Everyone who knows me knows my glass is not just half full - it's always full to the brim, yet even I have had my pessimistic moments of late. However, let's not forget that good times will return, especially if the strong in spirit make it happen.

Guy Moreton is director of recruitment practitioner MorePeople.

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