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…
Tags: change, lessons, recovery, recruiting
