Digital Credentials Can Help Recession-Proof Your Organization

If you’re a millennial or baby-boomer, you’re probably still recovering from the Great Recession of 2008 in some way. Jobs were lost, salaries declined, and businesses caved. The total economic impact of the Great Recession on millennials is predicted to impact wealth for generations, as in, far longer than the recession itself lasted.

Companies around the world, like Verizon and General Motors, are already laying off part of their workforce to save for the future downturn preemptively. “The U.S. has historically been the (economic) leader, and the U.S. is probably going to slow down this year,” says CBS News business analyst Jill Schlesinger. “World growth is much more likely to slow down in 2019, and it really looks like 2020 could be the year of a global recession,” she predicts.

Companies that rank in the top 10% in engaging their employees, like Mastercard and Intuit, focused on training and developing their workforce and saw a tremendous financial gain during 2008’s recession, as opposed to those companies who focused on cutting the bottom line. On average, those top 10% of engaged employers posted profit gains of 26% through the last recession, compared with a 14% decline at comparable employers, says Jim Harter, Chief Workplace Scientist at Gallup.

How can you recession-proof your workforce? Implement a digital credentialing program before the recession starts, and offer professional development opportunities to your employees, so that they're equipped to do excellent work. Learning on the job isn’t just great for the workforce, it’s great for the companies offering learning as a benefit, too. When employees are trained on the job, an organization can save an average of $70,000 annually and receive a 10% increase in productivity, according to Forbes.

Employers who are concerned about the next economic downturn should commit 2020 to offer learning and training to their existing employees, in an effort to keep them happy and to reduce churn. Credly offers secure, sharable proof of skills and learning, and empowers organizations to verify proof of learning.

To learn more about how you can recession-proof your company with digital credentials, fill out the form below and a member of our team will be in touch.