CareerXroads 7th Source of Hire study is officially released this week. Looking under the hood at where more than 300,000 hires in 49 companies came from can sometimes raise more questions than it answers but two sources (internal movement and referrals) remain the critical foundation for most staffing functions.
We think the implications of a growing corporate Direct Sourcing component will play out in the next 18 months. Lots of hype last year about social networks, search engine advertising and more have yet to show up in the results.
The Right Thing, one of our industry's most visible and successful RPOs has purchased what is arguably one of the most successful and visible recruitment tools and training organizations: AIRS. This is an interesting mix of staffing services.
Microsoft's play for Yahoo could, whether it's successful or not, restore Yahoo's recruiting services to more competitive levels. Gary Rivlin and Katie Hafner however, writing in the NY Times on February 4 Another Difficulty for a Microsoft-Yahoo Marriage: Recruiting made an interesting point about their own recruiting difficulties in any marriage of the two.
Consolidation may be how 2008 is remembered. We think industry mergers, sales and takeovers this year will be more extensive than at any time in the last decade. Everything from newspapers and job boards to training tools has the potential to get rolled up as entrepreneurs with the bucks position themselves for some of that [growing?] corporate staffing budget. In the end, cultural similarities between merging companies may have a lot to do with whether these moves turn into spectacular successes - or failures.
The newest specialty Classified Intelligence Report (CIR) on the Recruitment Market by Peter Zollman's firm - put together with the help of several outstanding writers and partners (including ERE) - is excellent. The report offers an extensive review of the alliances between newspapers and Monster.com, Yahoo HotJobs and CareerBuilder; a solid look at the use of video in recruitment and a well thought out discussion of how social networks are changing the face of recruitment and recruitment advertising.
These CIR specialty reports have a cost but are well worth it for companies seeking quality insights. CIR has a strong following among newspaper classified professionals but it would be wrong to assume that the information is limited to that category. It's a snapshot of the Industry's focus in 2007 and contains seeds for the future.
We especially liked the data collected on what firms perceive as their most effective sources. A great comparison to our SOH data.(Full Disclosure - we get nothing for recommending a supplier or vendor).
A brief article by Garry Kranz in Workforce Management Quick Takes entitled, Antisocial Networks: HR, Communication Leaders Expected to Clash, made a valuable point about Silos. Who will be the "steward" of all those employee profiles? HR? Staffing? Communications? PR? Marketing?
We can envision a potential turf problem. Staffing needs to have a seat at the table where any discussion of social networks takes place but this may very well evolve in a cross-functional committee activity. Pay attention because 2008 is the year we think social networks go internal.
Notchup has been getting some press for its pay- to-interview model. Would you pay candidates to interview with you? Have you? Would you do it for a broad range of jobs?
Despite the glowing reports of this approach as fresh and innovative, we don't see it getting to first- base. Tell us if you think we're off base.
Self-employment is rapidly becoming the No. 1 employment choice for many Canadians, according to a recent study. The report stated that Canada's self- employment accounted for 60% of all full-time jobs in 2006.
Technology has made self-employment much more possible for the typical professional but the quality of health care, benefits etc. they receive is, on average in the US anyway, not adequate. In addition, the communities that essentially host the self- employed derive no benefit (as they do with formal, traditional firms).
Finally, this whole discussion is more evidence that the pool of young quality applicants may be rejecting larger firms. If entire industries can't offer a working climate that can compete with self- employment, it won't be your competitors that get the top candidates. They'll just leave the playing field, adding more pressure to find talent.
This detailed SHRM survey on a Green Workplace is a potential differentiator in the effort to attract quality candidates. In a related article, half of HR professionals surveyed for this report said their organization has a formal or informal policy on environmental responsibility, and another 7 percent plan to adopt a policy in the next 12 months.
We are convinced that recruiting brands will be impacted by the extent that their firms walk the talk in several areas of social responsibility.
Rob McIntosh's article on ERE.net (February 5),was dead on - essentially warning that playing with cutting tools without a vision, a plan or, god forbid, a means to measure the tool's success is not a responsible approach for anyone aspiring to staffing leadership.
We also note that not a single job board of any size has EVER published their hiring results on behalf of clients at any time during the last 14 years. We issue an open challenge to any job board to tell us their top 5 clients (or any random list of 5 clients) and we will track down the results. We believe it will change the game.
One of SHRM's suggested Workplace Readings (February 22) might just become a cult classic. A new book by Peter Capelli (Wharton Professor extraordinaire) out in April, 'Talent on Demand': Applying Supply Chain Management to People, makes the case for new models of staffing using supply chain language and draws on examples as far afield as India.
We look forward to this one. Peter knows how to bridge from Academe.
The good news is if you have ideas you want to share, you can answer a call for presentations for 2009 conferences today. SHRM is already accepting proposals for the 2009 Spring and 2009 Annual Conferences. SHRM manages conferences focused on Global, Staffing, Legislative and diversity issues as well as their Annual conference that draws 20,000+.
The challenge is predicting the relevant issues you want to discuss a year in advance. We've been presenters at nearly every Staffing Management and Annual conference since 1996 and would be happy to advise colloquium members interested in presenting on how to increase their chances for acceptance.