5 Reasons Why Collaboration is the Future of Recruiting

The breakthrough book Wikinomics demonstrates how changes in technology and demographics led companies to reach outside the boundaries of their traditional organizations. Much like eBay created a giant ecosystem of buyers and sellers and LinkedIn- a huge group of professional networkers, businesses of all types are collaborating with partners to improve revenue and lower costs. This trend paired with the natural networking structure of the recruiting industry has me think that it’s only a matter of time before change of similar type and magnitude reaches our industry. Here are 5 core reasons:

Reach

How many people do you reach in a day? A week? A month? Whether you are running a full desk, strictly recruiting or bringing in new business, success requires you to constantly increase your reach. The proliferation of powerful sourcing technologies, bigger job boards, and social media channels mean that not only you, but your clients and competition have access to more candidates than ever before. The quality of your reach is vital.

So what if it wasn’t just you? What if you could tap into thousands of other recruiters who have direct access to millions of candidates? That’s Wikinomics.

Speed

Even if the right candidate is out there somewhere, alone it may take you a long time to source her and then of course there is the screening process. In today’s competitive recruiting world, speed will make or break you.

What if you could collaborate with other firms to gain fast access to the most qualified candidates for your client’s open positions? That’s Wikinomics.

Flexibility

Today’s uncertain economy makes it difficult for recruiting firms to discern when to hire new staff and which side of the business (recruiting or sales) should be staffed up first. In 2006 we hired frenetically and in 2009, the reverse.

What if you could run your business with outside resources, accessing account managers and recruiters only as you need them? That’s Wikinomics.

Scalability

As more and more firms look to expand geographically, the cost to do so and risk associated with breaking into new territory is significant.

What if you could scale your business by leveraging the area’s local established recruiting professionals without having to commit to the hiring overhead costs? That’s Wikinomics.

Technology

In the past, it was difficult to work with other firms because of technical limitations. It was hard to find other firms, hard to know what they specialize in, hard to communicate, and hard to trust them. Online communications advancements bridge this gap.

What if collaboration could be supported by a technology that would enable you to connect and communicate, while improving confidentiality and ethical behavior? That’s Wikinomics.

The pervasive growth of Web technology has enabled huge advances in personal and business “mass collaboration.” All types of industries are seeing advances including telecom (Skype), biotechnology (human genome project), classifieds (eBay), content (Wikipedia), software (Linux, Firefox), and retailing (Amazon reviews). Working with hundreds or even thousands of other recruiters will enable you to grow faster.

To help recruiting and staffing professionals succeed in this new reality, Bullhorn recently launched PowerFill, a network of recruiters supported by robust collaboration technology. Much like the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) helped transform the real-estate industry through firm-to-firm collaboration, PowerFill helps staffing firms collaborate to increase their revenue and bottom line.

< Previous Post

Comment by Rohan Chitalia on December 13, 2010 at 9:43am: haven't explored powerfill in depth as yet, but I wanted to pass on few of my ideas too :

split networks is a great tool, and I am sure it will succeed in the 21st generation. However, innovation is not everything in recruiting, revenue generation is the sole aspect. So, I think a robust and a very effective tool in recruiting would combine strategies in split network and franchisee recruiting.

Regards

Rohan

linkedin.rohan@gmail.com