Recruiting has changed significantly in the last 25 years. The primary vehicle of change has been the Internet. Other driving factors are business changes and technological changes not necessarily related to the Internet. I also think we have a different type of recruiter than we did even 10 years ago.



In today's world it is all about speed and how quickly a company can adapt to change. The professionals sought by successful businesses need to be found quickly and they need to be productive almost overnight. This adaptation to almost instant productivity expected of a new employee requires a high degree of specialization to a very specific area of expertise. Therefore, the recruiter needs a very fast way of finding professionals with the exact type of skills. It wasn't too long ago when an employer just needed an accountant with experience in the retail industry.

Today the employer needs an accountant with retail experience, plus experience in foreign markets, exchange rates, tariffs and knowledge of specific branded automated accounting systems.

There is no time to bring the new person up to speed.

So, the pieces of the big global economic engine are becoming more sophisticated, more minute, more specialized and more interchangeable.

Now I finally get to my point. What can I bring to the table via recruiting software that will give our recruiting customers the speed and accuracy they need to find or attract these people who are becoming more and more specialized into fewer macro groups and greater micro groups?

I have looked into my rather foggy crystal ball and saw that recruiting firms with an active functioning web site might be the way of the future. I am not talking about the web sites I see today which just simply talk about what a great recruiting firm they are and provide "x" number of reasons why they can help someone's career. Some may even post jobs and accept applications and s via their web site. I see recruiting web sites of the future being content driven to areas of minute specialization; i.e. not just doctors but neurosurgeons specializing in spectrography, not just commercial pilots but helicopter pilots, not just web masters but web masters with PHP and video marketing.

For right know, let us simply call this web site for recruiters an exchange where candidates of very specific skills and needs are drawn. A key emphasis of the exchange is the ability to quickly isolate very specialized and specific skills. If I know my customer base, the exchange will have to be highly customizable for each recruiting firm. Both candidates and clients will have to have the ability to interact with their own information. A lot of the information will need to be confidential and highly secure. But above all, this one to one interaction between candidate and client will be monitored by the recruiter. Wow, has the recruiter's job changed or what!

These web sites of the future will not simply be job boards like Monster, Career Builder or Dice. These exchanges will be run and operated by people with the knowledge of very specialized skills.

The biggest change I see coming however is the ability of recruiters to market and the means with which they market to their customers and candidates. Currently this marketing is typically in the form of newsletters, emails and phone calls. The recruiting firms of the future will learn how to market through their web sites via recruiting software. No longer will the recruiter be the "headhunter". The recruiter of the future will need to draw these people of infinite specialties to them because they will not just be found.

Right now if a candidate was to search for a position with a specific skill in Google, I'm willing to bet that not one recruiting firm would come up on the 1st page. This will change as recruiting firms learn how to add value to their web site, not just in the form of bringing employer and employee together but by offering information valuable to the specific industry; salary, latest news, trends, continuing education, etc.

I believe above all else that there is one aspect of the recruiting industry that will not change. It will always be a cottage industry of firms averaging from 1 to 5 people. One to five people can never track the geometrical growth and infinite expansion of skills. The capitol required for recruiting startup is so small that no one recruiting firm can ever become a Google, Microsoft or Yahoo. It is too easy for a startup to out compete a giant conglomerate recruiting firm in a specific area with little or no capitol investment. It will be even easier with good recruiting software.

Perhaps my last article was wrong How