Kurt Jarchow's Blog

I really think recruitment, more specifically job placement, is an important part of our economy and well being.  A well placed employee will increase productivity and overall happiness.   So… what’s wrong with the system now?

Well, people don’t like recruiters.  Why?  Nick Halstead put it better then I could in his post 10 Reasons Why Recruitment Agents Are Scum.  They’re not of course, they’re actually really nice people, so what is wrong here?

There is a lot of competition in the industry that has created a very secretive and protectionist industry.  Not only do recruiters have to guard their job positions and candidates from other recruitment agencies, the recruitment companies have to guard against their employees being poached.  There is also a lot of money to be made.  Unfortunately this business does not mesh well with the new age of information in a recession.

The internet is based on the sharing of information and about creating an open environment for collaboration.  The internet has already claimed a lot of victims who haven’t been able to adapt (and many more are on the edge) so the question is: are recruitment agencies next?

In many respects recruiters are the middlemen- they have the jobs and the candidates, and they just organize the pairing.  The value of recruiters are the quality of matches, which is why they are still relevant in a Monster/CareerBuilder age.  Internet technology just hasn’t been able to create a “short list” relevant enough for either the companies or the job seekers.

Let’s assume the worst, that someone does create an accurate algorythm to match 80% of hires to jobs.  This doesn’t leave much of the pie for recruitment companies.

Another agent of the internet potentially working against recruiters is social networking.  A savy HR department can keep track of thousands of contacts, making “who you know” much more relevant.  Boom-ba-da-bing, the middleman was cut out.   HR departments used their LinkedIn accounts to find positions.

So will an algorythm, sifting through millions of resumes, using work histories and education data with pattern matching, add a personal touch?  Or, will social networking give companies the opportunity to an effecient way to create short-lists themselves?

What can recruitment companies do to cope?  I’ll give this a good think and come up with some ideas in Part 2.