Recently, I attended a local panel discussion on “How to Sell and Close Candidates” and as you might expect, the room was filled with Recruiters – both corporate and third party types – interested in learning tips and techniques to recruit the best candidates. While waiting for the meeting to begin, I noticed a man who walked into the room wearing a laminated “For Sale” sign hung around his neck by a chain of paper clips. Having recently read about a creative/desperate MIT grad who took to wearing a sandwich board to find a job, I assumed this was an enterprising individual in career transition who was smart enough to take advantage of this high concentration of Recruiters to land his next opportunity.
Since I’m a curious type, I wanted to know more.
So I walked over, introduced myself and asked what the For Sale sign was about. To my surprise, the gentleman shared that he owns a local recruiting firm and after 24 years in the business – he wants out. When I asked why, he mentioned the poor economy and stated his belief that recruiting is a dying industry. “Clients just don’t need us anymore”, he said.
Well Hello, Eeyore. Thanks for bringing me down. I’m gonna need some more Diet Coke for this conversation…
Following my brief chat with For Sale Guy that morning, several things were running through my head… As Recruiters, is it possible that we’re headed for extinction? And while I’m out attending training to learn about how to recruit the best candidates for my Clients, are they back at their offices writing “Dear John Jennifer” letters to me? Personally, I don’t feel like recruiting is dying, but it’s definitely changing, and it’s pretty clear that Recruiters who aren’t adapting and embracing new ways of doing business are being left behind. (Nature’s survival of the fittest principal in action I guess.)
Remember, I’m curious, so when I got back to my office, I wanted to do some research on For Sale Guy and his firm to see if I could get some clues as to why he was so gloomy and had no hope for our industry’s future. After a quick Internet search, I was surprised that there was no company website to be found (after 24 years in business!) and a search on the firm name turned up only a few job postings on one of the major job boards. When I looked at one of the job postings, the contact information was only an email address – recruitername@aol.com. Digging deeper, a Google search on the name of the firm’s owner turned up no hits for him in the first several pages of results (even with a fairly unique name) and after entering additional search criteria (location and “recruiter”) a bare bones LinkedIn profile was found – that didn’t include a summary or specialties, web links or a personalized profile URL. Just for kicks I also searched for Facebook and Twitter profiles and as you can probably guess – there were none.
Am I suggesting that being a successful recruiter/business owner is all about having a strong Internet presence and using social media? Of course not. Those things are only tools for marketing products and services, connecting to others, building relationships and sourcing potential candidates (which, come to think of it, are things that are actually kinda important), but they’ll never replace human interaction and the ability to match a candidate to a client’s needs (and vice versa). It’s also probably fair to say if For Sale Guy has been in business for 24 years, he’s had some success in his career – up to a point. But he’s bailing out today -probably because he’s failed to adapt, change and grow (evolve) and the economic conditions have only served to expose that truth rather than cause the problem.
Are you doing the right things as a Recruiter to prevent your picture from ending up in a Wikipedia entry alongside of Dinosaurs and Dodo birds? Recruiting has evolved across the centuries from in-person to phone to newspapers to email to Internet job boards to social media – and now it includes all of those tools (and more). As pointed out recently in an article on Workforce.com, Recruiters must “adapt or become extinct”.
What do you think is next for us in our evolution? I want to know – because I’m staying in the game!
“The reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.” – Mark Twain
Jennifer – Great insight on this !! I think that not only recruiters, but HR traditionalists should take heed of the issue of becoming extinct !! It’s unfortunately the reality that is facing too many of my peers.
Hopefully, people will get off the “protected list” and jump into the vibrant and exciting work environment that is constantly around us !!
Jennifer, great question about extinction.
A little background – 17 years in the biz, both third party and corporate. Currenlty corporate, companies hire me to build value added internal recruiting groups based on third party models.
I do think segments of the recruiting industry are moving to rapid extinction, particularly those Morgan Method agencies that continue to operate on an adversarial and low value model. There already dead, the bodies just aren’t cold yet.
I believe there will always be a need for value added niche recruiting organizations and for strong internal agencies. The value of both is proven.
Something that does not help our survival as a profession however is the rampant turnover. The average tenure in the industry is under 4 years. This leads to a couple of questions: 1. How can we build knowledge and skill with that kind of turnover. and 2. if we can’t hire the right people into our own roles, how can we be expected to hire the right people for our customers. I think the failure to hire well, and then develop and nurture our talent is key to our industry, the same as it is to any industry.
Finally I suspect the gentleman you spoke with may have been a dinosaur recruiter (Morgan Method), just like 9 years ago when the industry purged itself of the less than spectacular, it is doing so again, and that ain’t a bad thing.
I feel that recruiting more than ever is needed in the business world today and at a more strategic level. As companies come to realize that people are their most important asset and if they want to achieve their business goals they need to have the right people in place. I think companies right now think they can not it on their own, which may be true for right now but this will change and they will not have a good recruiting process in place and will be affected. We, as recruiters need to show our value and how we can help companies save time and money with their hiring process. I think is is a industry that is changing and can be frustrating at time but also very rewarding you just need to decide if you want to be part of the ride.
Jennifer, great piece. Recruiters dead? No, more like adapting to the changing climate.
What is extinct is the old style recruiter call to a client -“any roles that need to be filled this month?” Recruiters must become more consultative; focused less on the transaction and more on defining the need – which by the way, may not be a search. Asking questions around business issues, future plans, whether a “hole” really needs to be filled or can be served by another function in the organization, help to move the dialogue more consultatively and can unearth future talent needs. Also, companies must hire/promote quality HR professionals and allow them a seat at the strategic table to discuss business strategy and related talent issues. Recruiters, in-house and third party need to have access to those kinds of strategy discussions to provide real value, and that means all parties must effectively work with senior HR professionals.
Finally, as you’ve said Jennifer – build the brand. If you’re a recruiter (or a job hunter), be visible on the web and build the company/personal brand. Create a presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other online “venues.” Be active in dialogue on industry websites, and create your own site as well. Critical need or not, corporate recruiters must be in the market building future relationships as well, not waiting to see what the ATS brought in today. It’s every recruiter’s responsibility to build their employer brand with each marketplace interaction.
@Steve – You’re right! Recruiters, HR, and just about anyone in any profession needs to stay current and connected for their professional development and ultimate career survival. Rock on!
I tend to get frustrated with recruiters who are so adamant that the only way to do this job is to pound the phone. While many of those who do that well are still very successful (and usually have a narrow niche), there’s plenty of room for others to evolve. In the end though, those that are evolving run much less risk of getting left behind.
@Puf – Great point about the low tenure of many in the recruiting profession and how it doesn’t seem to be a destination career for many – but something to try out or fall into. That doesn’t help with building street cred for Recruiters because so many in HR, hiring managers, etc. have had less than pleasant interactions with the inexperienced ones who are following a method based on activity numbers only. I liked your recent blog post on What if There Was Something Like SHRM for Recruiters – http://is.gd/1V9oc. Good insights and suggestions!
@Chernee – It’s tough to be a Recruiter in tough markets. For the corporate types, they’re some of the first employees to get whacked in a downturn, because as you point out, companies either aren’t hiring or think they can hire what they need without having someone trained and focused on doing that. External Recruiters are also affected because companies try to pull any recruiting efforts back in-house to save money (which makes some sense). Unfortunately, it’s only a few companies who “get it” that have a recruiting leader at the strategic level or who make every effort to build and maintain talent in that area for the long haul.
@Wally – You’re preaching to the choir here!
A great quote that fits with this topic….
“If you don’t like change, you’re going to like irrelevance a lot less.” – Tom Feltenstein
Jennifer is correct!
“History has demonstrated that the most notable winners usually encountered heartbreaking obstacles before they triumphed. They won because they refused to become discouraged by their defeats.”
Why do companies need a recruiters in this market? Because the average tenure for executives is now 18-36 months. Message to company executives: The pendulum swings both ways….Do you want recruiter’s finding that person for you, or from you?
A good recruiter partners with growing and progressive companies. A good recruiter does not chase transactions. Good recruiters are constantly are building new relationships with growing organzations. It’s the ONLY way to make yourself recession proof.
The culling of the herd of recruiters happens every 5-7 years. Remember the last fallout of 2002-2003?
Nuff said!
Mark S. James, CPC
Founder and President
Hire Consulting Services, LLC
Career Management Coaching
Expert Mock Interview Training
Strategic Recruiting Solutions
ExecuNet Meeting Facilitator – Irvine and San Diego
760-230-4301 San Diego
513-708-4112 Cincinnati
mjames@HireConsultant.com
http://www.HireConsultant.com
http://www.CoachingCatalyst.blogspot.com
I don’t necessarily think you need branding via Twitter/Facebook/LI to stay relevant, as long as you’re being active and actually headhunting for your clients. Regarding the guy talking about pounding the phones cold calling, I don’t believe that works too well either circa 2009. It is so darn easy to find people online with a little legwork and a smidge of imagination that I still can’t believe it.
All these guys sitting around waiting for their phones to ring (or for the AOL guy to tell them they have mail) because they put an ad on Craigslist should go out of business, because they’re not doing anyone any favors in the first place, candidate or client.
Great article Jennifer, and well versed.
Yes, thanks to the internet, enabling candidates and employers to make more connections, the old style of business is changing rapidly. I think it is easy to spot the dying sectors in their margins degradation – less than 15% heading to 12%, and its dying.
However, like all markets the skill of recruitment won’t die: as you point out, connecting people. What will happen is that the sectors which remain will grow through niching. These will be sectors where, issues exist such as: skills supply is short; pay high; industry players know of but do not know each other, as they are fierce rivals.
In these niched sectors, where recruiters are as much of the industry as the key players, they will form the gel that allows companies to reach their targets and individuals to reach their potential. Margins hence will remain high and grow, but only through adaptation by the recruiter to that market
Great stuff Jennifer! Love this post.
Jennifer
Here’s my view on Agencyosarus!
http://blog.hirestrategies.co.uk/erecruitment/2009/07/agencyosaurus-the-original-article.html
Peter
Yay Jennifer ! I also vote to adapt, change and grow (evolve)into what we’ll be next. Let the Dinos and DoDos meet the same fate as those who send you uncustomized LinkedIn invitations…. The way we play the game is forever changing – But the game remains the same RELATIONSHIP BUILDING … It’s what all great recruiters do. Every single search guru I’ve ever known is really a guru of building and maintaining relationships. The best of the best recruiters have learned to utilize the technology of our times to assist them as they BUILD MORE RELATIONSHIPS. And the best of the Best of the BEST recruiters are those who never fear experimenting… as they BUILD BETTER RELATIONSHIPS. So Experiment… a lot and tweak what you do … do it better and stay off the path of extinction.
Jennifer–great article! And @Mark–Love the quote…great find!
I definitely agree that adapting is the key to recruiting today. And while the person-to-person connection that is often a large part of the recruitment process will probably remain an important aspect at some level, the trend is definitely towards creating preliminary, and equally important, connections via the many social networking sites out there (LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) I think the problem with these sites is that people are not aware of how to maximize their networking potential–and this issue affects both candidates and recruiters. More often than not, the candidate’s profile is bare, which makes a recruiter’s job of finding the right person for the job even more difficult. This issue can be bypassed, however, by sites that encourage candidates to be as specific as possible while creating their profiles. Take OneWire, for example. OneWire (www.onewire.com) connects finance companies that are actively hiring with candidates who are serious about their careers (and by that I mean willing to put in the extra effort to ensure that they are being connected to the right people and employers) by making clear that each element of a profile is important, from education and experience to hobbies and interests. OneWire is even more forward thinking in that if a candidate’s profile matches an employer’s needs, they are directly connected, which bypasses the process of traditional recruiting entirely. The process of recruiting has already changed. Once candidates begin to provide highly individualized and detailed profiles that have the ability to be sent directly to decision-makers, industry professionals will be facing another opportunity to adapt or be left behind.
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