Will Online Social Media eventually kill off Recruitment Agencies?

Is there suddenly an evolution going on in the recruitment industry? Is Social Media pushing out the 'bricks and mortar' recruitment agencies?

Social Media is becoming so powerful that Hiring Managers, HR, RPOs etc are now resorting to Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIN and other Social Media networks to find both active and passive talent for various internal remits simply because it is FREE, reduces their recruitment costs and effectively produces a ROI. Managers are finding ways to invest their time in researching and tapping into the rich resources of the Social Media.

I believe the generalist recruitment agency will struggle to deliver relevant candidates to their clients and expect a placement fee when the same talent is freely available using Social Media search techniques. The argument I suspect would be that Hiring Managers simply don't have the time to sift through the social media to find relevant talent. But I say that Social Media is becoming so sophisticated that it will eventually reduce the time to search for relevant candidates.

So I guess the question is.. with talent freely available on the Social Media, why pay for the services of Recruitment Agencies?

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Permalink Reply by Suresh on February 21, 2012 at 2:48pm

Paul, your example of Travel Agencies does say something..We go to travel agencies for special packages and complicated travel requirements (those that are not readily available on online travel websites)

The employment market is a much more complicated one and the permutations/combinations of people changing careers etc is definitely complex. Unlike flights/hotel which are relatively predetermined by corporations and those that can be put into databases, resumes and people are tougher to evaluate and therein lies the need for human intervention.

There are other examples, like Robots in manufacturing plants (they solve a lot of routine/tedious or dangerous work, but we still need personnel to maintain, program, develop new robots etc). Robots haven't eliminated even all the operators, because they are an expensive investment and not everyone can afford.

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Permalink Reply by Paul Dhanjal on February 23, 2012 at 5:51pm

@Gareth, eSocialMedia seems like an interesting solution.

At Apply4U - we are a 'proactive' online job board that already proven to be a worthy alternative to recruitment agencies because it's a concept that brings screened active and passive talent from the social media sites to Apply4U ensuring our clients receive a quality supply of candidates to their job postings and the best part is..... They do not pay a placement fee! The client simply subscribes on a monthly basis just like any other online job boards. Furthermore, they receive job posting and CV Download credits of screened candidates.

For example, a client who signed up for a 12 month subscription posted a job to Apply4U for a German Speaking Sales Consultant. I head hunted and met with a German Sales Consultant yesterday, qualified the candidate, registered her details to Apply4U and recommended her profile to the client. The client contacted the candidate directly and arranged an interview next Monday. The client will receive a ROI if they make 4 placements in a year. So far they have made 2 x placements in 15 days!!

Apply4U is an online job board that has been built on the principal of delivering to our client's quality active and passive screened candidates from the social media and our partner networks and not pay a contingency agency fee. It’s revolutionising Recruitment & Job Search!