Tracking and following trends is human nature. It gives us a way to make sense of what is going on in the world around us. In a sense, it also gives us a way to predict the future.
If you’re a job-seeker, trending information by itself is probably not going to directly help you land your next job. However, understanding what is happening in the world of employment, Hiring Managers, and recruiting can help increase your odds of being noticed by employers who could benefit from your talents.
In yesterday’s entry, I discussed two of the Four Trends Affecting the Future of Employment. (For a better understanding of the topic, please review Part 1 of this article before reading further.)
The remaining two trends I’ll address today are:
(3) Referrals Will Become the Primary Sourcing Channel for All Positions
(4) Recruiters Becoming Partners with Their Clients and Consultants to Their Candidates
(3) Referrals Will Become the Primary Sourcing Channel for All Positions:
If you’re a job-seeker, networking and obtaining personal referrals needs to become an essential part of your job search strategy. In fact, if you’re not focusing on networking, you’re probably missing the boat altogether. Lou Adler makes that observation:
“In a recent Execunet survey, 70% of over 6,000 executives and executive recruiters indicated that networking would be the key to either finding a job or finding candidates, compared to 16% through online advertising.
While this would be expected at the executive level, our own 2007 survey of 800 corporate recruiters filling staff and mid-level positions indicated that networking and employee referrals represented about 35% to 40% of their hires.
This is about five points higher than last year, so not only is networking important, but the trend is up. LinkedIn has helped accelerate this trend, in combination with Facebook, MySpace, and some of the niche social networking sites.”
If you’re a Hiring Manager in search of talented employees, then a strategy for getting referrals is essential.
(4) Recruiters Becoming Partners with Their Clients and Consultants to Their Candidates:
This issue is being addressed more to identify an existing problem, than to presume it will be remedied in the near future. There is a disconnect between those who perform the sourcing of candidates and ground work on the front end of the hiring process, and those who actually “pull the trigger” on a hire.
“Our 2008 Recruiting and Hiring Challenges survey revealed two big problems. The first was pretty obvious: 76% of the 775 respondents said it was becoming increasingly difficult to find enough top candidates.
The second problem was a bit unexpected: 59% of the respondents said their hiring manager clients were the real problem in recruiting top people. Some of the problems attributed to this nefarious group included lack of good assessment skills, over-reliance on skills and experiences to weed out people, lack of responsiveness, and an inability to recruit top performers.”
What does this mean? If you’re a job-seeker, understand that the hiring system in the company you’re applying to likely does not work all that effectively. As quickly as possible, gain access to the hiring manager and build a connection with that person. This is the best chance you’ll have of being hired.
If you’re a recruiter, you have tremendous opportunity in the future to improve. Partnering with the organizations you service not only promotes your own job security, but is the path to your own personal excellence.
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