2008 is the year where we have finally reached the tipping point. The point where the promises of these past Net recruiting solutions are shown to be out of favor with new methods emerging as forces in the marketplace. To those of us in the online recruiting strategy role this change has been underway for a few years now, but has yet to surface in the mainstream press in a big way. Plus we must face reality: the online recruiting marketplace is a multi-billion dollar business that feeds not just the employees of each online entity, but also the self-proclaimed gurus and media who are fed via speaking fees, advertising, etc.  It is in the interests of several key groups to keep the multi-billion dollar recruiting industry beast fat and full of corporate cash.


Here are some of the factors which I believe will finally force the change:

1. The results are so bad on many web 1.0 technologies (due to interstitial ads, bad candidate treatment on part of job boards and corporations) that no amount of spin can compensate. Corporate America is dropping the big board mega contracts.
2. Tracking is here, and unlike the 90's, employers can more accurately calculate ROI
3. There are other more cost effective choices - Indeed, SimplyHired, JobCentral Network to name a few and the traffic to the aggregators is rising 100% a year.
4. The promises to Wall Street of mega profits by several players forces them to once again raise prices on a declining industry - even HR folks eventually "get it" that they are being had.
5. The recruiting 1.0 folks have lost their cache with the Sr. Leadership of Corporate America - today the buzz is about Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn - not some job board created in the prehistoric 90's.
6. The Employers are talking - not to their Recruitment Ad Agencies - But To Each Other! 

I and many of my industry colleagues look forward to having a very public discussion this year of just how poor several of the the top branded sites work....

Word has it that prices on the Big Boards are going up in Jan. by 10% or more which just makes sense based on the "stellar performance" of these sites over the past several years...... I must admit - I did not get an MBA, so can someone in the Blogesphere explain to me the economic principals whereby the prices rise when the traffic decreases..... Fact is, the interest today is in tapping other sources, like LinkedIn...

Just before the holidays I had a chance to drop by Indianapolis and visit my friends at the DirectEmployers Assn. 2007 has been a great year for our Association as we partnered with the National Association of State Workforce Agencies to replace Americas Job Bank, launched Vetcentral, and experienced 100%+ growth. I dropped by to see the new office expansion, meet several new team members, and spend a few minutes to plan 2008 strategy. Here are a few pictures I snapped (I tried to catch "The Chad" in action, but he eluded my flash).


Bill Strikes a Pose 




Welcome Brad to the Sales Team




Shannon, Tom and Nancy

Christy and Patti - can you believe it - they have been supporting Employers since the early 90's

I have always had a fondness for the resume database. In the mid 90's I had my resume posted on Online Career Center, the precursor to Monster.com, and one day I received a call from the acquisition editor at McGraw-Hill. She wanted to know if I could write a book on Javascript. I said sure, with a little study (yeah - like 10 years worth) - BUT I asked, did she know about recruiting on the Internet? One week later I had a book contract and a year later the "Employers Guide to Recruiting on the Internet" was published. 
 
I have always wondered if this fondness has clouded my views over recent years. When you get in my position of advising and counsel, and out of the day to day nuts and bolts of the operation, you can lose touch of what is happening in the marketplace. About 6 month ago I decided to see how these new resume database tools worked these days. So late one night I posted my resume on Monster, Careerbuilder, and Hot Jobs. Gee I wondered, maybe Google, Intel, and Deloitte would call in the morning or how about a call from Simon & Schuester this time. Unfortunately, the phone did not ring, but the emails started to flow for jobs such as cast manager, insurance sales, etc. I removed my resume from these sites after few weeks, but to this day the email messages still flow with a crazy assortment of job opportunities.

But I do still get calls from folks who have real opportunities at top drawer organizations - and the source?  LinkedIn and ZoomInfo.

This begs the question?? Are the big board resume databases of any value today, with their high price and OFCCP regulations restricting their usage??  Do high quality folks still play in these arenas??

My recruiters still want these tools, but tracking is difficult and as prices continue to rise -- with some sites charging $.50 per resume view -- I wonder if the resume database business has "Jumped the Shark"??

What do you think????

Once again it is time to gather together our yearly reports. Numbers are due at the Big House and the Leadership is eager to close on performance for 2007 and plan strategy for 2008. In my sphere, I sift, sort, slice, and dice resumes received and hires made by source first and then by band, job category, job function, average salary, etc. I don't have the numbers in yet but I will make a prediction on the reactions I will hear:

• Gee, once again happy employees referring friends is our single single best source of hire....
• Damn - we spent how much with agencies!!  
• So why did they charge us xxx% more this year when their hires were down xx%

Numbers will soon be in and I look forward to discussing the trends my colleagues and I have seen over the past few years.

It has been 8 years since I joined IBM in the role as Internet Recruiting Strategist. During that time I have had the unique perspective of having about every "Internet Recruiting Solutions" vendor ring my phone, viewed the results of over 100,000 job postings on major boards,  and been part of the emergence of a new industry. I have made many friend, talked to many innovators, and seen my share of industry scoundrels. In the weeks and months ahead I hope to add a fresh perspective to the discussion - that from inside the corporate recruiting sphere. Plus I hope to encourage my corporate colleagues to do the same. I look forward to the ride as we move into 2008..... Let the fun begin or should I say continue.....