Re-engineering the Recruiting Function
Recruiting has not come very far in the past 15 or so years. We're still trying to find the right technology and, while applicant tracking systems have evolved tremendously, the way we use them hasn't kept up.
Despite the technology, most recruiters handle about the same requisition load as they did then. We still call candidates in for face-to-face interviews, despite advances in online screening and assessment.
What's Happening in Your World?
For the sixth year, you have the opportunity to respond to a short survey on industry trends and issues. We have been doing this to help highlight what's happening and also to illuminate some of the activities going on in our space.
Why are social networks so hot? What's driving the frenzy around sourcing? Hopefully, this survey will help us answer some of these questions.
Is Recruiting a profession?
Many people do not regard recruiting as a profession. HR generalists are prone to think that anyone can do recruiting. Managers expect unqualified people to act as interviewers and to give them advice on whom to hire. Even recruiters have mixed opinions, as many of them were not formally trained and were also HR generalists at some point.
Within many organizations, there is an uneasy relationship between human resources generalists, recruiters, and management.
Blow the Sucker Up!
Do you know that recruiting is one of the least efficient processes in an organization? Transaction costs (cost per hire) are large and there is almost no effort being made to connect that cost with delivering value (quality of hire).
At conference after conference, I hear the same old measures being touted proudly: cost per hire, time to fill, number of interviews to offer, and so forth. It seems like no one is measuring the effects of our recruiting activities.
Do Away With the Resume
Recruiters are their own worst enemies. They perpetuate their own misery by creating websites and cultivating mindsets that focus on getting lots of resumes. Most recruiters bemoan the fact that they do not have enough of the right kind of candidates, yet they still advertise and promote in a way designed to attract all sorts of people, qualified and unqualified alike.
Consider these quotes from recruiters:
"I have received almost 500 resumes in the past two weeks.
A Sourcing Network on Steroids
For recruiters, sourcing is the hot topic right now. There is tremendous focus on social networks, Internet search, and employee referral as ways to generate quality candidates. Most organizations are struggling to find the volume of quality people they need to fuel their growth and ensure their ongoing success. A handful of tools have emerged over the past few years to make certain aspects of sourcing easier for recruiters.
Broaden or Narrow Your Search for Talent?
Sourcing gets all the attention these days. Last week I wrote about new technologies for sourcing talent and our recent recruiting trends survey (results and a summary will be available here in two weeks), which shows that broadening sources of candidates is the number-one focus for organizations of all sizes.
Never before have these words been truer: Finding the right people is difficult. And finding great people takes a strategy, not just more of what you currently do.