Today’s recruitment landscape is evolving at a pace never seen before. Everything from the job market to candidate expectations to recruitment technologies are changing so rapidly that many employers are at risk of being left behind. The problem is that stagnant hiring practices, such as the post-and-pray method are extremely ineffective at attracting top talent candidates. To compete in this ever-changing market, recruitment strategies must be flexible enough to adapt to these changes.
Developing adaptive hiring strategies is not an easy process. It requires constant data collection and analysis of recruitment trends, candidate behaviors, and technology developments. Many in-house recruitment teams and HR departments just do not have the time or resources to meet this demand. This transformation in the recruitment industry is making cross-functional collaboration a must for all businesses.
Understanding why recruitment at scale doesn’t work
In the past, companies were able to use buy-in recruitment services, through Randstad, Manpower, or Adecco for example, to exploit economies of scale across a linear value chain. This model is no longer effective because today’s candidates are demanding a more consumer-centric recruitment approach.
Another important factor of this new recruitment approach is that buy-in recruitment services, mostly sold by big temp agencies, will need to change their business model and prioritize quality over quantity. Having an extensive database of candidates isn’t going to work if you’re not able to convert prospective candidates into active applicants. Engaging candidates will mean creating a high-level engagement plan for all applicants placed in their database.
In addition, these buy-in recruitment services will need to adapt and transform their hiring strategies to the new digital age of recruitment. As with any large company that scales their services for big audiences, this digital transformation will be a daunting task. A task which will be intensified because they are not agile enough to customize their services to meet each new candidate’s unique demands.
In the end, this lack of flexibility directly affects the efficiency and effectiveness of these larger agencies ability to attract top talent candidates. While these buy-in recruitment services may still be able to pull in large numbers of applicants, you’ll find that the in-demand, especially passive candidates, want a specialized experience and therefore are working with small, boutique agencies that focus on quality over quantity.
Rethinking DIY recruitment
For years, companies could rely on their in-house team to handle the recruitment needs of the business. Today, more and more companies realize that their DIY recruitment practices are no longer sufficient. This problem is due to the fact that recruitment is becoming more and more specialized. In-house teams just cannot keep up with the knowledge, technology and licensing costs needed to develop and implement successful recruitment processes.
As the job market shifts and the recruitment landscape changes, DIY recruitment teams are finding it hard to keep up. By the time these recruitment teams identify emerging trends, implement new technologies, and adapt their hiring practices to meet current candidate expectations, the market could shift again. This consistently puts your in-house recruitment team one step behind the competition, which makes it even more challenging to attract the high-quality candidates your company needs.
Leverage innovative recruitment services
Recruitment has become a multi-billion dollar industry, driven by the innovation of thousands of recruitment tools and services emerging from unexpected sources. What once was an industry monopolized by big-name companies has transitioned into an industry spurred by smaller agencies offering better services, improved data-driven strategies, and innovative technology.
This transition has led to more companies turning away from large recruitment agencies towards small agencies that have the right technology and data-driven background. The service provided by these smaller agencies delivers an authentic and valuable candidate experience. These smaller specialized recruitment services now represent more than half of the recruitment industry.
Sourcing as a Service
Companies that want to remain relevant in a candidate-driven job market need to build an “ecosystem of innovation enablers,” where success is measured, in part, by the overall impact the system produces. To remain competitive in today’s marketplace, companies must let the experts handle the specialized aspects of recruitment and have their in-house team focus on the elements they can control and measure.
More and more often, especially when hiring for multiple functions, specialized roles, or hybrid positions, the recruitment approach requires varying customized recruitment strategies that reflect the specific needs of each candidate group.
When done by in-house recruitment teams without the right knowledge, technology or resources, this level of customization can drive up cost and be very time-consuming without the guaranty you will be able to fill the open posting at hand. By collaborating with sourcing as a service agencies, companies can build a cross-functional collaborate recruitment strategy that allows companies to tap into the expertise these smaller agencies have in understanding new technologies, candidate behaviors, and recruitment trends. This cross-functional collaboration can help drive higher results that improve the quality of hire and lower the cost of job advertisement.
This specialized recruitment collaboration will also help to create a data-driven candidate-centric process that is flexible enough to adapt to each candidate type’s needs without compromising critical requirements of the employer, which has the power to reduce the time-to-hire while lowering hiring costs.
If you need to hire a specialist role, please drop us a line. We would love to share our experience with you and show you what Tulsie can do for your company.
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