While you were sleeping

If you have been in business for a while and followed the technology press you will have noticed something too.  Today, a very big cloud is hovering over the entire recruitment industry, it’s a cloud made of 0’s and 1’s (computer code).  Social media companies have built connected platforms and now have to generate revenues somehow, and jobs/recruitment is a great place for them to start.

One view could be that where huge revenues are concerned, the once open platforms will become closed, locking current recruitment software companies out, building bridges with employers, leaving recruiters and their businesses sacrificed in large numbers.  When you don’t work together and form alliances, and think you are invincible, you are at your weakest. Keep looking in only one direction and you get hit by a train coming in the other.

Just look at the music industry, the big 5 global labels thought they controlled it all so they never collaborated across the entire industry.  Then one day, a technology movement started with the rise of Napster and the end result was the very people who owned all the content never controlled a thing.  In fact, they were being locked out.  A new player decided ‘these guys all fight each other, so we will do what they should have done, and while we are at it, let’s lock down our platform so we control it all too’.

Don’t get me wrong, on the part of the company selling you all the online music today that was a really smart move, well done to them, they had vision.  It left the big 5 global music companies in tatters, 25% their original size and one of the big 5 has gone altogether, another on its knees, scratching their heads thinking ‘how did we not see this coming?’  Well, how can I put this… some people have to hit a brick wall to realise it hurts, no matter how much they are told they bury their heads in the sand and refuse to accept what could happen.

Here’s the crazy thing; all the parts of the jigsaw needed to hold on to your industry already exist, but in bits scattered around.  The problem is no one is joining the dots, and therein lies your problem.  If you innovate in an alliance and create your own connected space then candidates will continue to see your solutions as the best routes to finding work.  ‘If you build it, they will come!’

As far as employers are concerned, I believe the CEO’s don’t want to ramp up their headcount to build even larger ‘internal recruitment divisions’. Do they want their staff calling people at other companies; do they want employers directly calling their staff?  Should they even hold data on people they don’t represent when the vacancy they applied for has closed?  They need high quality consultancy from recruiters.

Recruiters need to build strong lasting relationships and ensure they have the full range of consultancy skills and offering employers will expect to fill their vacancies.  They need to make sure they are up to speed with all the latest legislation, and most of all, make use of all the free help, build the best relationships with your candidates, prepare them well for interviews, get as much free advice, support and networking you can.  There is plenty of work our there, many of the new jobs being created require skilled people to fill them, you just need plan for the future and be at the top of your game.