Rebuilding Your Staffing Company? Inefficiency is a Death Certificate

I've been in recruiting for almost my entire career and wow has it changed. From the days of huge markups to the dot com decimation of professional recruitment, I have seen this industry change so much. I tell my friends that the staffing industry is the thing to watch if you ever want to know what the market is doing. If your recruiter friends are making money, that means the economy is getting better and/or on the rise.

Well, once again we are in a new era of recruiting. Recruitment Outsourcing is growing rapidly, margins will never be what they used to be, and recruiters barely use print media anymore. We are in a time where recruiters have to be very efficient and frugal while still finding the best applicants for their customers. Social Media and Web 2.0 is a product of this new culture. Recruiters are going to passive social networks for 2 reasons. The first and obvious is the ability to find passive candidates and the second is because, for the most part, it is free and quickly becoming as effective, if not more effective than some job boards. This blog post is really a call to action to all my recruiting friends out there that haven't grasped the trends that are in the now for recruiters. You know who you are.

Some of your favorite things to say are:

"I have a long standing relationship with my clients. They will always come to me because I find the best candidates"

"This social media recruiting thing is not going to last."

"I have great relationships with my applicants and clients."

"My clients pay for me, because I provide the best."

All of the above or many of these may be true but this isn't going to last. If you aren't changing with the times, you may cost yourself your business. The truth is, candidates are loyal to finding a job right now. Companies are loyal to recruiters that have the best margin with quality candidates and chances are, they have spoken too and are using another recruiter ahead of the game.

Quality talent is moving away from job boards, they are on the networks, connecting with friends, networking via Twitter, Facebook, Spoke, and LinkedIn. I implore you to start networking and connecting yourself into your industry sites, blogs and networks. Up your efficiency game and streamline your processes. Incorporate the right recruiting software technology to keep you at peak performance. Research the industry and find the right solution to make you more effective. There are hundreds of Recruiters on twitter constantly talking about industry trends and how to be more effective. As competitive as recruiting is, you will be impressed at how hard recruiters help each other out.

Good luck in the trenches and if we can ever help, don't hesitate to ask.