If you're reading this, then I'm guessing you already know recruiting is getting tougher these days. It's a job seeker's market, and that means recruiters are working harder than ever to get the right talent for their companies. But, even if the economy changes, some recruiters will still struggle to hire top talent unless they change up their techniques. Here's why...
The Evolution Of Recruiting
Over the last 20 years, recruiting has seen massive evolution. It started with online job boards. Thanks to Monster and Careerbuilder, we had a way to attract candidates with a single job posting. Today, this is referred to as "reactive recruiting," better known as, "post & pray." While it worked in the beginning, it has turned into a labor-intensive process where recruiters spend hours getting blurry-eyed as they pour through hundreds of unqualified applicants that have submitted their resumes, forcing the need to seek an alternative.
Next came LinkedIn, Indeed, and the power of "proactive recruiting." This enabled us to identify and target particular candidates by reaching out to them directly and introducing them to our companies and job opportunities. However, this technique is now starting to plateau because so many recruiters are using it. The best candidates are feeling SPAMMED by the multitude of emails they receive about jobs that don't fit their needs. Which means, talent is starting to tune-out recruiters using this technique.
Enter the Future of Recruiting - And, The Future is NOW
The newest progression in recruiting is called "interactive recruiting" and it's when a company treats top talent like VIP customers. This involves a more complex, organic process of communication that leverages a company's employment brand (i.e. like its presence on Glassdoor), as a way to draw top talent in conversations that help build mutual trust and respect. Eventually, it leads to hiring and a win-win partnership between employee and employer.
To help you visualize the impact this evolution is having on recruiting, below is the talent spectrum - a breakdown of where workers fall in terms of their attractiveness to recruiters. With it, is a breakdown of which types of talent are gathered from each type of recruiting. As you can see, if you want the best today, you need to be doing interactive recruiting.
Recruiters Don't Need New Technology, They Need New Technique
What the evolution of recruiting teaches us is that in the same way we can't pound a nail into wood with a screwdriver, we can't source and hire talent using methods that no longer work. And, while history suggests we need the next big technology breakthrough, that's not the case. Recruiters need new technique, not new technology.
