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The general mood for recruiting has been hopeful this year.  It goes beyond an anything-will-be-better-than-2009 fantasizing.  Now there are actually some numbers to point to.

Before recruiting agencies and departments pop the champagne for job orders or requisitions we now have to fill, let’s ask ourselves a question: Did we learn anything?

Cutting costs or laying off staffing saves money or (maybe) shores up resources, but creating value it does not.  I asked the following question on Linkedin: Recruiting-wise: What did you learn in 2009? Are you applying it in 2010?

It garnered a few responses:

• “My biggest breakthrough was that I had to be different and unique from my fellow corporate construction recruiters…” Ron Kubitz
• “We…ask[ed] our hiring managers to become more involved and more responsible for some of the details we use[d] to manage for them.” Deborah Rousseau
• “We… put a premium on velocity no matter what the level [of search]. We’re probably one of the more flexible firms in the bay area with no encumbrances to how things have always been done.”  Vikki Pachera
• “Increased [our] level of service… be a value added partner rather than just a vendor.” Jodi Bach
• “Outsource the low-touch.” Keith Halprin
• “[Worked to] ensure we don’t become irrelevant… [We also regularly looked for] the novelty, [this ] became our opposable thumb.”  Andrew Gordon

Perhaps there are some ideas here for us to riff on, experiment further.  Developing an “opposable thumb” is the key.  How do we do this?

To say “we survived” ‘09 is good, but it doesn’t constitute the recovery recruiting really needs.

Some ideas soon to follow…

More and more companies around here are closing during Christmas-to-New Year week(s).  Keeping only essential, operational  staff cuts facility-related costs say the executives.   Employees and temps who are affected sometimes grouse about being forced to use their vacation days or PTO.

How about productivity?  With the exception of hospitality, transportation and retail, what business can really be accomplished?

Isn’t it good to unplug at least once a year?  After a year of sprinting, isn’t it good to seek some closure?

Admittedly, I’m a pretty private person.  So being “tagged” by several colleagues has this ISTJer finally giving in.  Certainly not a tell-all, but maybe you’ll learn a few things that make tick:

•  Humor: I thrive on dry humor and puns.  Steven Wright and Demetri Martin are my idols. Read my Twitter profile as a mini-ode and follow the funny folks I also enjoy (@badbanana, @chumworth, @fireland, and  @shoesonwrong).
• Hi, I’m William and I Twitter
• Upon leaving college, I immediately sought to put my Political Science degree to use:  I was a janitor.  Truly a step forward from my prior job as lifeguard, no?
• My present boss is the same person who laid me off in ‘01.  Odd?  Not really.
• I have thing about altitude – ‘Love skydiving, being up in a single engine plane and alpine backpacking (climbing 14ers).  If anyone has a fighter jet, I’ll cancel all my appointments.
• The surname?  It’s Basque.
• Studied in country and am 3 units away from a minor in Russian
• If you ever need my vote in the future, just whip up my favorite dish.  All I can say is John McCain made it perfectly.

Now, pick up your jaw off the floor and leave a comment (preferably a pun)! 8~)

Photo: Me and my mini me.