I know what your recruiting clients are thinking – do you?
Everyone says recruiting is changing. The evidence is overwhelming that we are on the cusp of a seismic shift in the way our industry needs to work. It is all changing. Client expectations, candidate behavior, social media, technology.
But how do we sort out the reality from the hype? And what should the ordinary recruiter do to prepare for the future?
Well, a great place to start is to make sure you understand what is different about the way our clients are thinking now. Have they changed their outlook from prior to the GFC? What are their pain points? And how is all this going to affect recruiting, and indeed our industry as a whole?
Over the past six months I have personally been on about 50 face-to-face client visits. In Australia, the UK, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia and France. Typically I have met with the CEO, the CMO, or the VP responsible for Talent and Recruiting.
And I have taken these wonderful opportunities to ask those senior executives exactly these key questions, and more. What are they thinking? What is their attitude to hiring? What is working in terms of recruitment? What is not? What do they plan to invest in? Are they going to use third-party recruiters more, or less?
And I learned a lot. Too much to share completely in this blog, so I chose one compelling theme. And it is this.
The critical thing you need to know, if you did not already, is this. In boardrooms across the world, CEOs, CFOs and HR Directors, have a fierce desire, backed up by real strategies, to drive as much cost from recruitment as possible.
Hiring, its cost, its effectiveness, is under an intense spotlight. Everywhere.
This is driven by good old-fashioned cost-control as you might expect. CEOs are under intense pressure to deliver growing profits as the economies recover. But also something new has emerged.
Increasingly, I now see a very deep cynicism of the value of third-party recruiters. Business leaders are now changing their whole recruitment strategy accordingly. Internal recruiting teams, RPO, talent technology, and a range of direct sourcing tactics.
And for many companies around the world, social media has come as a godsend, because they see it as a great channel to connect with talent directly and cut you (and me) out!
And that is what many intend to do.
Our challenge is going to be to woo those ex and prospective clients back. And to do that we are going to have to prove we can give them something they can’t get themselves, at a cost that they perceive to constitute value.
This is the massive issue for us all in recruiting that I learned from speaking to your clients.
Differentiation and proof of value
And it will send many recruiters who get it wrong out of business… soon
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- Posted by Greg Savage
- On August 17, 2011
- 15 Comments
15 Comments