Archive for November, 2009

Job Boards RIP v2.0 – From jobs to communities…

Posted: 30/11/2009 in Job Boards, Recruitment, Social Media
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All the traditional channels of recruitment seem to be in for a kicking right now and the job boards seem to be the latest victim!  The recruitment agency model reached middle age before its viability was questioned but the job boards are merely teenagers.  One wonders if social media will make it out of nappies at this rate, particularly with all the fuss being made about ‘ROI’.  Since when did recruiters ever care about that?!

Anyway, job boards are definitely coming under significant scrutiny, their overall value being challenged and in some cases their long term viability is also being called into question.  But are we being a bit hasty?

Job boards evolved in the move of classifieds to the web, which whilst significant at the time was vastly overrated in its long term effect on the recruitment industry and the habits of the job seeker.  As more content went on-line, more candidates looked on-line for jobs but this was really nothing more than a transition from print to web page. Now, as the Market warms into another frenzy, there is talk of job boards themselves being killed off in the light of social media.  But is there any truth in that?

To fully understand the threat to job boards you have to look at the differences between the mid to late 90′s when they emerged in earnest and the current environment within which social media is  developing.  A lot of people are drawing parallels with the late 90′s saying something along the lines of “They said the internet would kill off recruitment agencies and print media but it didnt happen then and it wont now”.   And its a fair point.  But to think that the circumstances are in any way similar would be foolish.

There are some key differences between now and then:

  • There was no recession back in the late 90′s – in contrast we are in the middle of a global meltdown which is forcing organisations and individuals to seriously consider the value and effectiveness of every process.
  • ‘Connectedness’ - its a new phenomena which did not exist in the era of web 1.0 or even in the early days of web 2.0.
  • Generational shift - we are on the cusp of a significant shift in generational influence and control.  In the late 90′s Gen Y were, at their oldest, a group of snotty nosed teenagers about to enter university and lay the foundations for a student debt crisis and a binge drinking sub culture.  Now, Gen Y are employees, decision makers, entrepreneurs and even guru’s.

I believe all three of these factors add a significant and influential dynamic to our current situation and more importantly how this situation will play out over the next 2 years.

This leads me to consider a number of things:

  • Job boards are primarily a Gen X tool, that lack the features current and future job seekers would like to see or find useful. With a small number of exceptions they are predominantly flat advertising platforms lacking any form of long term ‘stickiness’.  Some are evolving, this is true.  But many lack even basic collaborative features or as Katherine Robinson @thesourceress points out in her recent blog post, How To Make A Job Board Social any reasonable integration of social media tools.
  • Job boards are caught in red oceans, forced to compete against each other through segmentation and differentiation by offering additional value around the same core offering in an attempt to hold or increase revenues.  The publisher based ones are particularly caught in this trap as they try to transfer and recover the high level of print revenues to the web platform.  But this strategy simply cannot work longer term. It is not sustainable.

To survive they must do more than evolve.  They need to shift their thinking away from advertising, even away from jobs and careers as a core purpose and instead focus on building a community at their heart.  Once they have this then revenue opportunities, many probably outside of jobs, will naturally flow.

HR and the Talent catastrophe…

Posted: 09/11/2009 in Business, HR, Leadership, Talent
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Talent Management – a phrase that’s been on everyone’s lips, not least every self respecting HR professional and even the odd headline hungry CEO.  Howver, I fear we may have lost our way inrecent years in terms of defining what ‘talented’ actually means, how we identify those that that have potential, and how we develop them, their behaviours and their skills.

Consider this for a moment:

We live in a time where executive remuneration has never been so high and rewards for ‘good performance’ so attractive.  As leaders we have access to more strategies for success with more guru’s sharing their wisdom than ever before through books, seminars, blogs and development programs.  There are more graduates from the likes of Harvard, INSEAD et al in the marketplace and more money has been invested in leadership development programs and executive coaching in the last 10 years than ever before.

And on top of all this, the market conditions over the last 15 years could not have been better.

So what is the result of all of this collective wisdom? The output of all of that world class ‘talent’ combined with a booming economy?

A global recession underscored by greed, incompetence and arrogance on an unprescedented scale, that’s what.

If HR has any influence as we make our way out of this mess through the coming months and years, it must be to challenge our existing talent strategies, across the board. Our rediculous obsession with qualifications, processess and stereotypes brought the world economy to its knees and its about time we challenged every basic principle on which our leadership and talent is identified, nurtured and rewarded.

It’s time to get disruptive and deconstruct. And HR should be right up there hacking away at every assumption and everything we have previously taken for granted.

But before you get busy, something for us all to consider…

Perhaps the biggest crime is not necessarily the direct actions of the few, but the influence these people have had on others – you and me.  A loosening of standards and ethics at the top of an organisation has a significant knock on effect all the way down the hieraechy.  It’s inevitable.

Slowly but surely, like a creeping desease, this behaviour, this subtle signal from those in positions of influence and power – bankers, MP’s and executives alike – starts to distort or own moral and ethical framework.  Has it not yours?

Food for thought…

R.I.P Recruitment v.2.0

Posted: 09/11/2009 in Executive Search, Recruitment, Social Media
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I have had some really interesting conversations on Twitter recently, many on the future of recruitment. One particular conversation with fellow twitterers @mervyndinnen and @billboorman was followed up by a post from Bill on his Recruitingunblog entitled R.I.P Recruitment, encouraging recruiters not to give up on their industry and insisting its not dead.

Of course it’s not dead! It never will be. People will always join and leave organisations. That will never change. But HOW they find and join organisations – the recruitment supply chain if you like – will change.  Bill, I think, advocates a return to traditional recruitment and a rational, rather than alarmist, approach to the impact of social media on the recruitment industry. And in this respect he is absolutely right. Social media will not kill recruitment but it will, without doubt, materially effect the supply chain, changing it’s dynamics permanently. And a fundamental part of that supply chain is currently the recruitment industry.

As a result, the chances that we will see a wholesale return to ‘traditional’ values of recruitment are unfortunately unlikely.  Don’t get me wrong, these values – building long term relationships, deep understanding of clients and candidates and exclusive relationships – are the bedrock for a successful recruiting partnership.  As both a client and candidate that’s how it was for me, and continued to be so in my first search role.  But by the time I entered the world of executive search in the late 90′s the seeds of change had already been sown.

Fast forward 10 years and the landscape, particularly at the lower and mid market levels up to say £100k base salaries, has changed significantly.  Out has gone the deep, exclusive relationship and those lovely retainers, in has come procurement, preferred supplier lists, faceless portals, non exclusive deals and success only fees.  Competition is fierce and its dog eat dog out there.

My point, in all of my comments and rantings on twitter though, is that what most recruiters don’t seem to understand is that one of the root causes of this seismic shift for the worst is the recruitment industry itself.  It is perhaps one of the best examples of being a victim of its own success. You see back in the 90′s, the recruiting industry got greedy.  It changed the model.  It focussed on hard sales, drove the consultants ruthlessly through KPI’s, lowered basic salaries and cranked up the commission and recruited consultants with less and less experience – with devastating results for the industry and its customers.

As a client I got fed up with calls from ignorant, pushy consultants trying to convince me to see a candidate (despite not having a vacancy!) and refusing to send me the CV beforehand, or threatening to target my people if I didn’t use them as my main supplier.  I could go on.  The worst thing is, this still goes on and those responsible are currently poo pooing the impact of social media, predicting a return to the glory days of growth in the ‘next quarter’.

Well, I’m afraid that’s unlikely to happen.  Things have changed for the recruitment industry dramatically in the last 10 years and it has nothing to do with the internet or social media, and everything to do with the industry’s ignorance, apathy and sharp practice. Granted, there are many still in it who, like Bill, Mervyn and me to name a few, who have always maintained standards.  But unfortunately, despite our efforts, the others took us over the tipping point, forcing clients to embark on a long term strategy to wipe us out of the process.

And what of the future?  Well things will definitely change and the impact of social media will be significant, but probably not realised, until it has passed into the natural order of doing things, to a time when its no longer extraordinary and when we no longer attend conferences to talk about it.

R.I.P Recrutiment?  No.

R.I.P Current Recruitment Business Model?  Inevitable.

I could write more, but my posts are too long already so I think I’ll save it for the Recruiting Unconference!

No hip grinding please…

Posted: 05/11/2009 in Recruitment, Social Media
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_photo_redContinuing my recent Linked-In stream of consciousness, someone asked me recently what advice I would give a recruiter who is looking to use Linked-In as a tool to help them do their job. Having reflected on this somewhat, I think the answer has to be that if you see it as simply a tool to help you find candidates and potential clients then it probably won’t work for you.

And that’s the whole point about Linked-In – it’s an enabler of networking and conversation. First and foremost that’s its purpose and value. To get the best out of it you have to be in it as an authentic participant, building networks and relationships. Building trust. This must be your primary goal. If it’s not, then your network, and all the benefits it can bring, are unlikely to flourish.

Think of it this way. If you are a single guy looking for love, going to Salsa classes, for example, with the sole intention of finding a suitable mate amongst your fellow dancers is probably a bad idea. If you are not doing it for the love of dance, then not only will you fail to become accomplished you will also run the risk of alienating yourself amongst the rest of the group.

My experience is that many recruiters behaviour in Linked-In is no better than the hip grinding efforts of the salsa guy hoping to get his leg over at the end of class. Flagrant self promotion, woefully hollow conversation and inappropriate approaches set them apart from the other genuine and trusted networkers.

Recruiters would do well to think about this before embarking on a crusade across the Linked-In network. Otherwise you might just find that you are on the receiving end of a rather hefty slap!