Always in motion is the future. — Yoda, Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

If Facebook is the social lounge, then LinkedIn is the post-conference after party. It has disrupted the recruitment profession in the way recruiters perform their work. It’s one of the more valuable sourcing tools in the toolkit (see graphic). It’s not the only but currently the most important. keep reading…

There are many strategies to build a healthy employment brand: promoting jobs with social media such as your Facebook page; LinkedIn ad impressions; hiring events; recruitment videos of your CEO, and so on. Celebrities have not really been part of employment branding strategies. That changed with Google as is showcased in the new Vince Vaughn movie The Internship. We may be seeing another strategy developing that is out of box and a breath of fresh air. keep reading…

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change” — Charles Darwin

There is a great article by Adrian Kinnersley on Why Recruiters Will Be at the Heart of Our Corporate Future. I agree with some of the points. The rumors of our professional death have been always greatly exaggerated since our early ancestor recruiters found the first stone-age axe makers. Our profession, however, will change due to disruptive trends (Doesn’t it always?). These trends and their impact apply to in-house, outsourced (RPO), and  third-party recruiters alike.

My focus here is on two specific disruptive trends and the strategies to adapt and re-invent if needed. This article is more than about skills development, though some suggestions will help you in your recruitment efforts. As a former AIRS trainer and talent acquisition leader having developed training programs for recruiters, I can say that constant learning is what keeps gives us the edge in changing times (it always will).

Trend #1 — Emerging Technology Will Continue to Disrupt Recruitment keep reading…

I came across a new and hard-driving CEO of a billion-dollar private retail company who loved a CTO candidate after the first meeting. The candidate came from a top-notch external search firm. The external recruiter worked with the CEO in past and was an industry expert in retail, but not with this new industry. The CEO championed the candidate to all his reports, fast-tracked the interview process with little HR involvement, and candidate was eventually hired. The CTO lasted two weeks.

Little to no HR involvement in selecting the best outside recruiters for your company; no defined process; and when headhunters are the strategy — that’s when hiring goes rogue. I’m going to talk about how to handle these situations. keep reading…

I hear from talent acquisition leaders that they want a seat at the table. I ask: “What does that mean to you?”

For an individual recruiter, it’s building trust with your hiring managers. For a recruiting manager, it’s building trust and showing progress on hiring needs with multiple hiring managers.  For the leader, it’s driving quality of hire, building relationships with leaders, enhancing the brand, globalizing hiring if required, managing a large budget,  driving productivity outcomes with the teams they manage, and delivering on hiring goals set out by the company at all levels especially the executive level. Any talent acquition strategy has to be aligned to these company goals and directly to the HR vision.

HR has to build bridges with their finance leaders and with those who influence strategy. For this to happen, talent acquisition has to be the bridge with its HR leaders to be the subject matter expert in hiring practices; specifically, hiring practices that help reduce short-term attrition. keep reading…

HR should be every company’s ‘killer app.’ What could possibly be more important than who gets hired…” — Jack Welch, ex-CEO of GE 

I wish more CEOs and their respective CFOs agreed with the statement above. The companies that do follow this mantra seem to prosper (GE, Google, Facebook, Mayo Clinic, Starbucks, and others that invest in hiring and developing talent.) Quality hires impact a company’s ability to execute its mission, reach its milestones, be profitable and ultimately increase shareholder value.

I’m going to talk here about how to measure this quality. keep reading…

I don’t have a crystal ball. Nate Silver, who wrote a bestseller and predicted the outcome of presidential election better than any other pollster, said that his goal is to get 80-85% of his predictions right, not 100%. To get the right predictions, he says, test your hypothesis in the real world. I’m aiming for that here.

I’ve tested what we call RPO in a global setting since 2006. I’ve built business cases which supported or negated moving forward with RPOs and I’ve implemented them at some large Fortune 100 firms. In addition, having worked as a talent acquisition leader for an RPO firm responsible for more than 25,000 hires in a year, I’ve seen the internal challenges faced by RPO firms and been able to stay current on challenges for the RPO industry today.

I don’t currently work for the RPO industry so I have no vested interest in sharing my views. I don’t advocate for any specific company. But below I’ll look at some trends in outsourcing and add my predictions. keep reading…