Are Recruiters Going the Way of the Dinosaurs?

• Author: Shally Steckerl
• Posted: May 25, 2007
• Category: Recruiting
• Tags: No Tags
• Comments:

My buddy Carl Chapman not only has exceptional taste in picking restaurants — maybe stemming from the fact that he’s a big shot in the restaurant recruiting biz — but he is one heck of a smart guy too.
 
I had read the Tech Crunch article Online Job Hunt 10 Years Later - Still Sucks and resulting debate but hadn’t sounded off on it until Carl’s comments about Jason Golberg’s impassioned contribution to the debate. Jason says a new marketplace is evolving where technology will “eliminate the need for the specialist (recruiter).”
 
So is it time for you gentle readers to brush up your writing sills and start crafting yourselves some new resumes?
 
No. Well… and yes.
 
I agree with Jason about the development of technology in our Industry, but I see that as a very positive effect. Our roles are going to change dramatically as technology gets smarter at automating boring and repetitive tasks - thankfully! In other words, I believe our jobs will change for the better but I don’t believe our jobs will simply be eliminated.
 
But what does Carl have to do with all this? Well Carl is first and foremost a strong businessman who clearly understands the inherent value of any middleman. Carl infers that recruiting, like any other trade, is not just about introducing a buyer to a seller.
 
If hiring managers one day had access to tools like Jason Goldberg envisions will be built then its possible that hiring managers may be able to meet a certain percentage of their hiring objectives via self service “candidate vending machines.” But ultimately tools can not replace all hiring.

Recruiters are specializing, just like most other corporate functions have. For example, there was a time when there was simply a Corporate Counsel, yet now Greg Roth will tell you the legal department has specialists in IP, litigation, labor law, taxation, regulation, negotiation, securities, international and finance among others.

Or you can ask Microsoft’s Heather Hamilton, the marketing department has specialized into online, print, PR, advertising, promotions, competitive intelligence, pricing, channel management, market research, market analysis, and so on.

Even our parent organization, in most cases Human Resources, has specialized away from a “generalist” role into disciplines like payroll, benefits, compensation, employee relations, organizational development, and so on. So why is recruiting just “Recruiting?”

My crystal ball tells me that the function of corporate recruiting in growing organizations will continue to give way to more specialized roles. Many of these specialties already exist:

• Project Manager: Recruiters with an end-to-end understanding of all the moving parts, and who manage the intersection of the recruiting department with multiple vendors like RPOs, BPOs, search firms, research providers, outplacement firms, contract recruiters, consultants, PR and corporate communication firms, job boards, tools and technology vendors (ATS, CRM, databases of leads, spiders), training companies, and any other service providers.

• Consultant: A recruiter with excellent client facing skills who is aligned with the business unit and is in charge of devising and implementing a recruitment strategy for their hiring manager clients. The consultant no mere central point of contact. They add significant value to the process by helping set expectations, contributing to the drafting of a budget, and assisting with headcount planning. They are responsible for engaging the right resources at the right time, managing costs and ensuring that hiring deadlines are met.

• Referral Programs Specialist: Recruiters who will focus on designing, improving and running the corporate employee referral program.

• Sourcer: Recruiters who are responsible for identifying active talent from within the ATS, major job boards, and the web, and make that talent available to recruiters or consultants who work with hiring managers.

• Researcher: Recruiters that have developed advanced skills in the identification of hidden talent pools. Researchers differ from sourcers in that their focus is primary lead generation activities, sometimes called names sourcing, conducted via both deep web and phone research. They locate hard to find leads and send them to recruiters or candidate developers.

• Candidate Developer: Recruiters with the gift of gab who can very effectively cold call potentially uninterested candidates, get their attention, gain their trust, and secure their interest in opportunities with the company.

• Events Recruiter: Recruiters who focus on conferences, events, interview days, and other time sensitive campaigns that drive.

• Campus Recruiter: Recruiters who’s sole focus is to forge relationships with key universities

I’m sure there are specialties I skipped, and others that will surface as our profession evolves, but lets also consider that there are recruiters who don’t work for the corporation directly. People like Carl who provide a service to corporations do more than just find a candidate and forward the resume to a hiring manager which can be easily replaced with automation.

They also use their judgment and make educated decisions while comparing available talent and selecting the best possible choices for their clients. But even more importantly than that specialists like Carl have a network of key contacts in a particular industry, like large chain restaurant operations, and through that network they grant their client access to a higher quality of candidates – lets call these gourmet candidates – than what is available at the “candidate vending machine.”

See also:

• Posted on JobSyntax, techcrunch critique of job boards

• You won’t find your job on a job board on Leathern.com

• Sometimes, Offline is Better than Online posted on The Prolific Programmer on the Web!