Hiring engineers during the recession pays off for material handling equipment vendor

News of economic growth, success, and job creation is always welcome, but it's especially heartening at a time when many companies are still recovering from the effects of the Great Recession. There was quite a bit of good news to be heard at the recent Modex 2012 show in Atlanta.

A number of companies reported that they not only had survived the recession but had also achieved significant growth—and they're anticipating even brighter days ahead. Just one example: In an informal briefing, John Baysore, president and CEO of Dematic, a provider of material handling systems and software, told DC VELOCITY that his company is projecting year-on-year revenue growth of 10 percent in 2012. At this stage, he said, that looks like a solid projection. Should the company hit that mark, it will have grown its revenues by 143 percent between 2009 and 2012.

To support that growth, Dematic needs a strong and growing team, especially in the area of engineering, Baysore continued. That's why what may have been a tough decision at the depth of the downturn in 2009 is proving to be a shrewd one as the economy moves toward recovery. "We made a deliberate decision to maintain our engineering workforce during the downturn so as to be well positioned when the economy rebounded," he explained.

In fact, Dematic not only maintained its existing engineering team, it also increased it. Over 100 engineers were hired in 2010, and another 262 joined the company in 2011. This year, Baysore projects, another 221 will come on board—all told, an engineering headcount increase of 583 over four years.