Over the course of my career, I have seen many changes in the world of recruitment. In recent years, however, those changes have become seismic. The biggest development\u2014and one which is at the heart of this book\u2014is the power shift that has taken place.<\/p>\n
When I began my career, employers held all the cards. People tended to stay in jobs for a long time, which restricted the \u201csupply\u201d of opportunities. It was the candidate who first had to convince a company to interview them and then had to convince the interviewer to hire them. It was hard for candidates to find out about the best roles, hard for them to find out about the company they hoped to work for, and hard for them to compare what they were offered to what others in the market were getting.<\/p>\n
That world is gone. Today\u2019s candidates are better prepared than any that have come before, and the best of them are in high demand. They come to interview knowing more about the company than many interviewers, with detailed knowledge of what they should be offered (and often with their own ideas and expectations of what it will take to entice them to accept a job), and with a seemingly uncanny understanding of what it\u2019s like to work for the company\u2014both the good and the bad.<\/p>\n
If you are involved in recruiting in any way, you need to adapt to this new world. You cannot afford to ignore the changes, and you cannot simply go on doing what you have always done. With growing competition for the best candidates, attracting, closing, and retaining talent has become a critical success factor for organizations, and it can make the difference between a company that survives and thrives, and one that does not.<\/p>\n
And yet, hiring managers do not receive the proper hiring training and support they require, recruiters continue to act as though nothing has changed, and both insist on treating candidates as though they are fortunate the company is even considering them.<\/p>\n
Few organizations make recruiting the strategic priority it needs to be.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Companies that spend millions creating a customer-facing brand neglect the message they are presenting in the employment market\u2014their employer brand\u2014and create candidate experiences that jar with the customer experience they have often invested heavily to create.<\/p>\n
The result?<\/p>\n
Disengaged candidates who will literally run from the building to get away and would rather work anywhere else but there, poor hiring decisions that bring the wrong person into the organization, and stressed recruiters juggling unrealistic requests from clueless hiring managers.<\/p>\n
Recruitment goes far beyond sourcing and selecting new employees. The impact of bad hires can be toxic to the teams they join, but it also has very real effects on the bottom line of the organization. A poor recruiting process that creates a negative candidate experience can hurt the employer brand, and overt time that can damage the company\u2019s consumer brand.<\/p>\n
The Future of Recruitment<\/h2>\n
Correcting hiring mistakes is usually a difficult, expensive, and lengthy process during which work is not getting done and team and organizational effectiveness suffer.<\/p>\n
Connecting Individuals is a Critical Factor<\/h3>\n
Going forward, the critical factor for recruitment will be connecting to individuals. We have access to a vast pool of talent for every position. Technology makes it possible for us to identify, find, and engage the best candidates wherever in the world they may be\u2014in ways that were impossible just a few years ago.<\/p>\n
Organizations Need to Become Proactive<\/h3>\n
So, organizations need to become more proactive in approaching potential employees. Recruitment is still a very transactional and reactive function. Most organizations wait until a position becomes open before they start to think about how to fill it, rather than planning and taking the time to understand who they will need to attract in the future and creating relationships with those people in advance.<\/p>\n