Social Recruitment – The End Of The World As We Know It?

As with most years, there have been a deluge of articles posted already in 2013 making many predictions as to the trends, factors and challenges of the year ahead.  Of these, there have been a great number from recruiters and industry professionals discussing, pre-dominantly LinkedIn, and the demise, or, future of the recruitment industry in this social world. 

You can see two such articles  listed here from Lior Shamir; Recruiters your days are numbered  and the other, with a slightly different view from Adrian Kinnersley; Why Linkedin will never kill the professional recruitment industry.

Here at Douglas Jackson, we have seen a great deal of change in our recruitment lives.  Some of our consultants have personally been in recruitment almost 20 years and back in the day (oh yes it is some way back…..), the only tools a recruiter had, or needed were a phone, a directory and a box of index cards……… how things have changed!

Over the last 20 years many predictions have been made that have charted the end of recruitment consultancies, but, none of them have led to the end of the world as we know it just yet.  However, all of the subjects that led to these articles and predictions; the Internet, Applicant Tracking Systems, Recruitment Process Outsourcing, In-House Recruitment Teams, Job Boards and now Social Recruitment, have all seen significant changes in the recruitment landscape and good quality recruiters have had to adapt and change to continue to provide the very best service and solutions to their customers.

A good recruiter has to continue to learn and evolve, adding to their skills and kit bag every channel, tool and system they can, that will ultimately help them seek out that one perfect candidate.  After all, the recruiter should be the specialist and person who can offer the very best service and solution to their customers, to do this they need to embrace all avenues and routes to market, not just one.  As a specialist recruiter, no matter how big your advertising budget, your LinkedIn network and your database, we know that each assignment requires a brand new search and we rely on our many years of experience, relationships forged, network built, recommendations gained and contacts made across all channels, to seek out the best talent available for each of our assignments.

So, will LinkedIn drive out recruiters? Our personal opinion is no!  Of the candidates Douglas Jackson placed in 2012 only 54% of them had LinkedIn profiles at that time.  As with any database, or, portal that attracts, or, accesses job seekers, unless 100% of your potential audience are found in this place, there will always be a case for an alternative solution. There is no doubt that the use of social media continues to grow, this then leads to the question, ‘what about the competition?’  As more employers are directly contacting potentially passive candidates, do you know how you will differentiate your role to those of your competitors in attracting the attention and ear of that sought after individual?

Good, quality recruitment takes time, it is hard work and a challenging role at the best of times, as good people with specific skills and talents are still hard to find.  Tools and technologies will never be able to replace the most important part of recruitment, which is ‘people’ and it is people and these relationships which ultimately allow recruitment and recruiters to succeed.

If you are finding your usual avenues to market, or, direct hire solutions have not delivered you the most suitable candidate for that business critical position then why not give us a call and see how Douglas Jackson can help you source and recruit your next talented professional.

What do you think of Social Recruitment? We would welcome your experiences, thoughts and ideas, please do get in touch or leave your comments here.

You can contact us on 0845 620 9720, or by email:  mail@douglas-jackson.com