5 Recruiting Trends for 2010

If you’ve been paying any attention to recruiting news lately, then you’ve likely noticed huge changes in the industry and the methodologies being used by top producers. Recruiters are becoming smarter, more connected, more mobile and more interested in relationships. Recruiters sometimes get a bad rap but let’s face it: all we’ve ever been trying to do is more, faster and better. We are repeatedly faced with the justification of our salaries and commissions to our employers and clients. It’s a tough job but somebody’s gotta do it, right?

These are the reasons we continue to push for ways to make our recruiting efforts more streamlined and effective. How can we create solid pipelines of talent while still remaining on task and sane? The fundamental core of recruiting is forever changing, evolving with the development of technology. Some of this technology is proving useful and others are not. So without further adieu, let’s review 5 Recruiting Trends for 2010:

1. Social Media

Twitter is clearly leading the path in this trend. While sites like LinkedIn have fostered stronger and more prevalent professional connections, we all know that connections require some kind of prior relationship (in most cases, with the exception of LION). However, Twitter has allowed recruiters (and job seekers alike) to find potential connections they may not know. Twitter removes some of the formality of making crucial hiring connections and allows a bit more of our personality to shine through. Ultimately, recruiters are interested in who is going to make the best impression for their client and a standard resume doesn’t always reflect it.

Social media – including Facebook and MySpace – are platforms which allow us to be found by others. Friends, family, potential employers and potential employees. If you aren’t using these mediums yet, then you will quickly be left in the dust by your counterparts. This is the #1 Recruiting Trend for 2010. Candidates and clients will be judging your use of social media as a gauge of your abilities to be resourceful.

2. Relationship building

This sort of goes hand in hand with social media, as that is what created this trend of relationship building to begin with. However, even outside of social media – more recruiters are taking an interest in building long term relationships with not only their candidate pool but also with their industry peers. Gone are the days of the “mine, mine!” mentality where agency recruiters protected information with a death grip to prevent anyone “stealing” their information or clients. We are a more open society of gentiles now, respecting boundaries and sharing knowledge that is helpful to others. I attribute this to the “open source” and social media movements. Information sharing has become a huge party of our societal status. Not to mention that it just feels better to have real relationships built on trust and respect.  If you are interested in building pipelines of talent, you will pay attention to this trend.

3. Mobile recruiting

I’m not sure where this fits into corporate environments just yet but from an agency perspective, this is genius. There are also many definitions of “mobile recruiting” but the trend I’m going to define here is specifically targeted to agency recruiters in the temp and contract areas of placement. Whether you are placing clerical, light industrial, technical or healthcare personnel, mobile recruiting is something you should be looking into.  This is possibly one of the fastest growing sectors of recruiting technology. Picture it like this: you have an “available” list of candidates in your database for placement. A job comes in from a client and it matches 50 of those profiles. You send a notification through the database to all matching candidates, which in turn sends an SMS text alerting them of the job and instructing them to call into the office for more details. Rather than spending all afternoon calling all of your available candidates, you notify all of them in one swift motion – they come to you. This sounds like good technology to me. I’m not sure which ATS systems are using this yet, but I’d love to hear of some!

4. ATS Evolution

Speaking of ATS – Applicant Tracking Systems – I sense from my recruiting peers that an overhaul is needed in this area.  Traditional, large scale ATS systems like Taleo make social media recruiting extremely difficult. In fact, most applicant tracking systems are as far away from social as possible. They leave most job seekers feeling like pawns at the gate of the kingdom, begging to be let in. While ATS systems have their place, helping to automate the applicant process and store critical data, they have yet to truly integrate the relationship aspect of recruiting. Most successful recruiting is not done through an ATS. It is done through relationship building and referrals. There is a revolution bubbling under the surface – recruiters want more flexibility in how they identify great candidates while still remaining OFCCP compliant. I suspect that most ATS companies that are paying attention will be finding ways to make these necessary systems more effective for social media recruiting and relationship building.

5. Job Board Revolution

Many of you know that I run a job board, that’s no secret. One of the reasons that I started JobShouts was to create a cost effective and useful job board that was focused on creating relationships and bringing better matches to both candidates and employers. As a recruiter, I got tired of using the big job boards like Monster or Dice. The job postings were way too expensive for the volume of jobs that I had – not to mention the responses I got were often large in volume but small in qualifications. It was very frustrating, to say the least.

It’s comforting to know that other recruiters share my sentiment and are branching out to more niche job boards and spending their money more wisely on them. Gone are the days of $500 job postings and “the largest job board on the planet”. Who cares about volume if the content is crappy? Recruiters are getting smart and demanding more for their money. The job boards that remain fat, with their heads buried in the sand, will quickly fade into the mist. Monster, are you listening?

The Definition of Insanity in Your Job Search

Face it: job searching right now is a bear for nearly everyone. It is harder for some than for others but by and large anyone looking for a new job is struggling to find one. We can analyze why; fewer jobs, employers are more selective, etc. Many job seekers turn to job boards and social networking as tools for their job search. There has been a lot of negative feedback from job seekers about the use of job boards and the lack of response from employers using these job boards. “Are they real jobs?” “Why don’t they respond?” “I feel like my resume goes into a black hole!”

By the same token, employers complain about the lack of quality applicants on job boards. Job seekers fail to follow application instructions or reply to positions for which they aren’t qualified. Employers become complacent about responses from job board applicants, likely thinking they aren’t going to find the candidate they want to hire in that stack.

It goes without saying that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. If we truly want to change the landscape of job searching and recruiting we have to change the approach. Job boards can be a very useful tool for both employers and job seekers, if utilized properly!

Job Seekers, consider this: Do you think you have a better chance of getting that job by submitting a good cover letter and targeted resume to a job posting? Or do you think you’d have a better chance by doing all of that and making a social connection within the hiring company? What if you were the hiring manager? Would you be more interested in interviewing someone you know nothing about, or someone with which you have made a connection and know something about? Making that connection helps make you a real person instead of just a personality-deficient resume.

Here are some quick do’s and don’ts for Job Seekers:

Do use job boards. All of them, any of them.

Do use targeted resumes. (modified resume containing job key words)

Do use cover letters when applicable.

Do use social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook to connect with potential employers and recruiters.

Do use the power of Google to help you learn about the companies you want to work for (or the ones that are advertising openings).

Don’t be afraid to make those connections! You don’t catch a fish with an empty hook!

Don’t be a pest! It’s unprofessional and makes you look desperate. Calling multiple times a day or sending more emails when you haven’t yet received a response guarantees you won’t.

Don’t complain. People are watching you on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn. Complaining about how much your job search sucks doesn’t make you a more attractive candidate.

Don’t give up! Job Searching can be tough on the self-esteem. Don’t feel sorry for yourself, it won’t help you. Treat your job search like a job and make sure you take off 2 days a week like you are supposed to. You need that time to recharge.

I’m sure we have some readers that can contribute more to this list of do’s and don’ts. We encourage you to list yours! As for how we can get employers back into shape with regard to using job boards properly, well that’s another blog post. Stay tuned!

- Robin M. Eads, Co-Founder & President, JobShouts.com