By Frog Recruitment
Described as a uniquely NZ perspective on talent attraction and acquisition, RHUB NZ 2012 presented an array of fantastic speakers with different thoughts and insights into this compelling theme, which we will share with you in the following blogs.
Greg Savage from Firebrand Talent, was first up talking about: ‘Navigating the Road Ahead for Recruiters’
Greg talked about how as an industry we have adapted to various changes. For example when job boards first appeared, people talked about them like they were going to wipe out the recruitment industry – but we evolved and survived.
Each change creates an opportunity for those who can take advantage of that change… There is a total and fundamental shift coming and the impact will be the most profound. It’s about Talent Sourcing and the impact of Social Media. As an industry, we have no choice but to adapt or we will not survive.
Greg recently spoke to 100’s of CEO’s across Australasia about what their key drivers and challenges were around talent acquisition. The consensus was that CEO’s are thinking about talent as a top business priority. Talent is seen as the differentiator in their GFC recovery and Social Media is being viewed as a way to address the talent crunch.
CEO’s understand the challenges in front of them and are investing in building access to the Talent they need. The microscope is on all recruiting costs with tight financial management in place, so companies are developing proactive hiring strategies to control costs and future talent needs. Talent acquisition is still a top priority but companies are hiring new, highly skilled, digitally savvy people at the same time as they are managing out those that aren’t.
Today we’re seeing the reinvention of everything!
- News = Paper > CNN.com > Twitter
- Job ads = Paper > Seek > LinkedIn
“Sure we still read a paper but it’s a lifestyle thing you do on the Saturday morning… but it’s old news – these days we get our news in real-time” says Greg Savage
In the future we will be placing people in jobs that haven’t been invented yet. For example, the Social Media Manager did not exist 5 years ago, just like these other emerging roles:
- Chief Innovation Officer
- Chief Experience Officer
- Chief Customer Officer
There is a seismic attitude shift occurring with candidates.
The GFC burned a whole generation of talent… and Social Media has created the ability for them to communicate and complain in a very quick and transparent way. Candidates have grown to resent the traditional recruitment process, due to some bad recruitment and hiring manager behaviour, which has created “application apathy” and resentment. The digital generation has a low attention span, which has created candidates who want transparency and speed. They have a general distrust of the system at large and their expectations around communication channels have shifted.
Technology has changed the way people behave – they make decisions in real-time and expect that response in the recruitment process.
Talent Sourcing Evolution:
- Word of Mouth – Forever
- Classified Print – 200 yrs
- Job Boards – 15 yrs
- Social Media – 6yrs
- Social Recruiting – 2yrs
Organisations must become social and change their definition of a candidate. Not everyone is looking for a job, but everyone is available to change jobs if the right job is presented to them. Why do we invest our sourcing and attraction strategies on only 10% of the talent pool? Why are we squabbling over the 10% that is active? We have to bring “unavailable” talent to the hiring table or our talent pool will become a talent puddle. We currently define a candidate when THEY nominate to engage in the process. Forget the concept of “passive” candidates – Proactive sourcing is the future.
- 75% of the US workforce views themselves as jobseekers
- 76% of the OZ workforce describes themselves as jobseekers
- 1 in 6 US jobseekers credits social media with obtaining their current job
- 34% of jobseekers use Twitter to find work
- 52% of the US are on Facebook
- 88% have a least 1 Social Media profile
- 92% of companies plan or are using social media to find staff
Talent acquisition is dependent upon talent identification. There is more and more talent data available online every day. We have traditionally been taught to focus on pre-existing relationships, but the database is not enough, job boards are not enough… you need to build relationships with candidates whom you have no pre-existing relationship with in order to survive.
Social Recruiting just works better but remember Social Media is a communications channel NOT a sales channel. Traditional recruiting skills are still critical – think of Social Media as a flirting, seduction or your first date… it’s a place to showcase your expertise, generosity and thought leadership.
Social Media gives passive candidates a sneak peek at your corporate DNA. You must have an integrated digital strategy on Social Media which includes a whole range of channels like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, blogs, website.
Mobile is the obvious choice for recruitment but it’s not new. 88% of jobseekers are happy to search jobs via their phone, yet only 70% of fortune 100 companies career sites support mobile recruitment processes… And most Applicant Tracking Systems are NOT friendly to mobile either.
The road ahead is where technology meets human influence… see you there!
Sources:
RHUB NZ 2012 http://rhub.co.nz
Greg Savage, Firebrand Talent: ‘Navigating the Road Ahead for Recruiters’ presentation
Frog Blog 