“You know how companies have difficulty finding talented new employees even with high unemployment? Well, I find and evaluate high potential candidates for … insert employer’s name…”

Cheers,
Keith

Indeed- a large number of current Staffing Heads, Corporate Recruiters, and TP Recruiters would then be in different lines of work…

Cheers,

Keith

HR/recruiting has evolved and is becoming a more integral part of every business and it very well should be. But it has evolved also due to the fact that smary and savy Executives recognize the value and need for a strategic HR group.

For me, as I stated, although I am internal – I am a “Head Hunter” as the recruiting I do internally, is no different than the recruiting I did externally.

I agree we have more technology than we used to- when I started recruiting, resumes were carved from stone tablets and the fastest way of getting in touch with a candidate was by a carrier pigeon with a message tied to its leg, and we were glad for it too!…But seriously- is the time, cost, or quality of hire better than it was previously? Perhaps, perhaps not. I suspect that as we can now more quickly do some things that need to be done, the corporate “bloatocracy” has given us all sorts of things we can do that don’t need to be done and which detract from our true purpose: quickly and affordably placing quality butts in chairs. ISTM that the more a corporate staffing department emphasizes “processes” over “results” and has staffing go more and more into peripheral activities like employment branding, employee engagement, and social networking, the less effective they are likely to be.

As far as candidate pipelines: I’d LOVE to create those, but most of the time the majority of us are either drinking from the req. firehose or wondering “how much longer they’ll keep us around during this slowdown” (during which it would be IDEAL to create pipelines) but our ever-wise Staffing Heads don’t seem to head in that direction very often….(Fortunately, there are now firms I know of that will help corporations with otherwise-limited bandwidth and expertise to create candidate pipelines and provide them with the consultants to show how it’s done, if the regular recruiting staff is still drinking from the firehose.)

Cheers,

Keith

Before we start formalizing the field, we need to create Generally Accepted Recruiting Practices (GARPs) based on evidence and research. I think these will be a long time in coming, because so much recruiting is based on the Greed, Arrogance, Fear, and Ignorance/Incompetence (GAFI) of the Founders, CXOs, Sr. Executives and the recruiting heads who help create/maintain the largely dysfunctional “bloatocracies” in which many of us work.

Cheers,

Keith

John – You are correct there are some people who go into recruiting to advance their HR careers. But there are also many corporate recruiters who want to continue along a recruiting career path that is not supported within the HR organization. I’ve believed for a long time that Recruiting and HR Generalist professions have very different skill sets. Recruiting skill sets are much more aligned to sales and marketing, are more proactive, creative, strong at building/balancing internal and external relationships, and are short-term goal oriented, whereas HR Generalist skill sets are often more reactive in nature, focused on managing process, procedures and policies, are strong at building and maintaining internal relationships, and supporting longer-term organizational goals. This is a key reason why some HR Generalists who do not have strong recruiting skill sets struggle when they need to recruit as a part of their job.

That perception of recruiting as a grunt-level stepping stone, unfortunately, exists in a lot of organizations. In many companies, recruiters are low paid, entry level staff who come and go, and it should be no surprise that in these types of organizations that some managers will go to headhunters who they’ve known for years, and trust.

It’s difficult for a seasoned executive to have confidence in a corporate recruiter who isn’t yet old enough to shave, and that’s a challenge for many young corporate recruiters.

The corporate recruiter has a tough job. He/she has to gain the trust of managers, and deliver on what are often unrealistic expectations. The amount of jobs many of them have to fill can often be overwhelming.