One Year Later - Attracting Critical Talent in Today's Economy

Almost a year ago to this date, CLC Recruiting presented its work on “Attracting Critical Talent in Today’s Economy,” where we revealed five commonly-held labor market myths and the challenges and opportunities they present to recruiting professionals.

Generally speaking, hiring managers believe that we can fill critical positions faster, cheaper, and better. Given the abundance of talent looking for jobs, hiring managers think that it should be easy for recruiters to fill positions with highly qualified talent. CLC Recruiting took a look at whether this myth was a indeed a myth or reality and found that, while application volumes have increased considerably, we did not observe a commensurate increase in quality of slate and quality of hire from the perspective of hiring managers.

The question is, do these findings still hold one year later?

In a survey of recruiting executives, recruiting managers, and recruiters, CLC Recruiting found that the number of applications per requisition has increased by 128% from 2007 to 2010, but that 83% of recruiters believe fewer than half of those applicants meet the basic qualifications for those positions. Looking at quality of slate and quality of hire, we found that those metrics actually deteriorated from Q109 to Q110.

So what does this mean for Recruiting?

We need to continue to refine and rationalize our sourcing channels and increase transparency into the day-to-day experiences of the positions we’re attempting to fill. These tactics will enable us to target and attract the right quality candidates.

In addition, we need to look within, specifically at recruiter capabilities. Do recruiters have the right sets of skills and experiences to add strategic value to the business? As Donna Weiss mentioned earlier this week in the Recruiting Roundup, our upcoming research on “Building Next-Generation Recruiter Capabilities” will seek to answer this question. Stay tuned!

Coming Soon - Next-Generation Recruiter Capabilities

Our latest research is coming out soon—“Building Next-Generation Recruiter Capabilities.” Based on the great response we’ve received from the membership on this upcoming work (whether from members who participated in a research conversation, took part in our survey, or registered for an upcoming meeting on the topic), the results should be an exciting, and important, quantitative breakthrough in the skills today’s recruiter should possess.

Recruiting execs are prioritizing the capabilities of their teams. This is not surprising given they are facing one of the most challenging recruiting environments we have seen in recent years. For instance, we often hear that “recruiters should be more strategic.” In fact, when asked, only 28% of recruiting executives are satisfied with their team’s ability to bring strategic value to the business.

But what does it mean for a recruiter to be "strategic"? And what capabilities should today's recruiter possess?

Our upcoming research will bring clarity to those questions amidst the renewed urgency felt by so many recruiting executives. Stay tuned.

What Is Your Recruiting Report Card?

Head of Recruiting isn’t exactly an easy job to define. The goal might be simple—get the highest quality talent in role as quickly and cheaply as possible—but there are literally hundreds of potential ways to get there, things to measure, and people to negotiate with.

Last year, we told you that the recruiter role is actually 5 roles in one (core recruiter, salesperson, candidate relationship manager, internal client relationship manager, and project manager). While it doesn’t make the job of a recruiter any easier, it does help parse out the competing priorities and skills to simplify the approach to being a great recruiter.

Similarly, consider your role as Head of Recruiting as embodying two roles: Head of Talent Management and General Manager.

As the Head of Talent Acquisition, you have five core responsibilities:
• Build business-aligned workforce plans
• Develop a compelling employment brand
• Optimize sourcing channel mix
• Establish “win-win” selection decisions
• Drive new hire performance through onboarding

As the General Manager, you also have five core responsibilities:
• Structure your team for impact
• Develop your team
• Integrate the function into your business
• Boost recruiting process effectiveness
• Mitigate vendor risks

How you prioritize among and execute against these responsibilities will depend on your situation, but it’s worth a thought: How are you performing as the Head of Talent Acquisition? As the General Manager?

CLC Recruiting members, see an in-depth review of each of these responsibilities in our new report.