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I’ve seen five recessions
and—fortunately—five recoveries. This last crash was a major
thumper! The recovery is, for our purposes, opportunistic. The Dow
is recovering, the economists are watching and the hope of many is
high.
A brief recall of the mid 2000s
We were rockin’! It was a glorious time to flourish in a
candidate-driven marketplace. Many industries were in good health
and optimistic. In these times of recruiting affluence, the vendor
exhibit halls were populating the recruiting conferences from coast
to coast. Their latest and greatest “Holy Grails” of recruiter
tooling included very slick products capable of seining the internet
for candidates, position openings, hiring companies and they worked!
Then the missing link was something that could organize and recall
for distribution to hungry clients, the candidates mined from the
myriad of technology based watering holes in cyberspace.
Thus we were presented with the next grand advantage, ATS and
contact management tools, some of which would mix and match faster
than a box stuffer at Whitman's candy factory. This was very cool
stuff and their proliferation throughout our industry was massive.
Many a recruiter earned a respectable living and some actually
created measurable wealth using these tools. Many of us fell under
the delusion, self-created or expressed by others, that only we, the
recruiters, knew of their existence or possessed the ambition to
master their ultimate potential as gold mines.
After October 2009
Our industry started suffering the largest attrition of
practitioners I have witnessed since the advent of employer paid
fees. By my observation and personal collection of the opinions of
many recruiters across this country, about 70% of recruiters in
business in early 2009 are in alternative careers now. For the last
year, our industry attracted few new practitioners as either
independents or franchise-based recruiters. The once rising movement
of researcher implementation abated as well. Tough economic periods
are often seen as cause for hunkering down. That is debatable by
some but not in this forum.
The Brave New World of Recruiting
I've made it my career quest to extinguish every bad practice and
behavior that denigrates recruiters resulting in the “stereotype” we
face every day, every call. Our future could not be brighter. We are
faced with the opportunity to forge ahead providing surgical, custom
recruiting processes as the best solution to providing the people
who make things happen in this frenetic economy. We, and only we
possess the artful skills and techniques to penetrate a source
company. We gain the attention and cooperation of the industries
thoroughbred talent. We present these solution saviors to
cooperative clients who pay attention to our counsel and pay our
full fees. Many retain us so we do not drift away from finding the
answer to their urgent dilemma. Alas, the days of our option to surf
the “Net” and seine in the applicants, then cast them by handfuls to
a client who catches them from many others is now and likely forever
gone.
The very practices that formulated our bad boy reputations have been
mastered by our clients. I say, “let them go for it… and when they
fail as their predecessors did at digging up the very best people
who make things happen; we will be their prodigal recruiters, ready
to come back and solve their greatest recruiting challenges.”
Of course, the moral to this story
Wise recruiters have an opportunity now to master higher search
practices, precision recruiting techniques and a process of service
that will command the attention of those clients who have already
seen the folly of this “poaching pandemic”. Exercise your very best
ability to say no when confronted with those enticing opportunities
to revert to the good old days. This evolution of recruiting is not
a tale of things that may be, no; rather a fact of what is here
today, and likely, it is going to remain. I love it! It is time to
cash in.
For all you veterans now working as independent sole practitioners,
it can be a lonely existence. I recommend with all of my confidence
that you take a hard look at AGR (Agents Recruiting Group). They
have been around for a decade. I tried hard but could not find a
chink in their armor. You can find all you need to know and the
support that will make you a top producer in 2010 and for the
balance of your recruiting career. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/y9zkrbk
for the details and answers you seek.
You can find all you need to know and the support that will make you
a top producer in 2010 and for the balance of your recruiting
career. Go to: http://tinyurl.com/y9zkrbk for the details and
answers you seek.
Doug Beabout, CPC, CSP is
a veteran of recruiting since 1977. As a working owner, Doug spends
a large part of his time in the trenches of his own recruiting
practice. His evolution as a recruiter has been the result of his
adaptation to an ever-changing marketplace. Doug's techniques,
tactics, training materials and presentations can be found at
www.recruiterelearning.com or call (850) 424-6933. |
© Copyright 2010, BlackDog Recruiting Software Inc.
