Candidates Think They Don't Need Recruiters. Prove Them Wrong.

An interesting article on the  www.ERE.net blog titled  "5 Reasons Traditional Employment is in Trouble" raises issues that both employers and recruiters should be concerned about. The gist of the article is that employees have had it with traditional employment and are opting instead to  work independently, offering their services for a fee to anyone who needs their skills.

This trend takes recruiters completely out of the loop. Instead of using recruiters to help them find a job, workers are turning to "crowdsourcing" sites, like Amazon's Mechanical Turk, where they can offer their services for bid.

So what's behind this trend? For starters,  workers feel unappreciated and disrespected. And as the cost of employer-sponsored benefits soars, workers no longer feel chained to traditional employment as a way to get the insurance they need.

Additionally, the article stated that workers are seeking the following advantages that traditional employment is just not delivering:  

 
Engagement 
  
Fulfillment 
  
Challenge 
  
Project-based work  
 
The opportunity to participate in decision-making 
 
Freedom over their own schedules

The fact is,  you can offer all that and so much more by placing them on contract assignments. Contract work is often project-based and time-sensitive, so workers can quickly feel a sense of fulfillment by seeing how their work makes a difference. Workers on  contract assignments  also often have more control over when and where they perform the work.

Better yet, contract assignments provide many of the perks that come with traditional employment along with the freedom that comes with independent work. If you work with a  contract staffing back-office, like Top Echelon Contracting, the contractors will be offered a full menu of  benefits, a regular paycheck with the option of direct deposit, Unemployment and Workers' Compensation protection, and more.

Candidates may think they can do better without you. But you can prove them wrong by showing them that there is a better solution to the problems they are facing with traditional employment. 

Debbie Fledderjohann is the President of  Top Echelon Contracting, Inc.

Comment by Navid Sabetian on May 16, 2012 at 10:03pm: I am not sure about this article. I certainly have not seen this Trend, at least not in Australia.

Websites where candidates offer their services or their entire resumes have been around for a very long time. Linked In to a very large degree is a place where employees can offer their services and even allows them to directly connect and speak to potential employers.

Every time technology makes a breakthrough in recruitment industry such as when Monster.com came along they all say headhunting and recruitment will only be around for a few more years. I believe the proof is in the pudding. If you specialize in your market and invest time to know your candidates, no amount of technology can bypass your work in my opinion.

Comment by Theresa Hunter on May 17, 2012 at 11:36am: I have to agree with Navid. What we offer the candidate is the chance to be seen and heard by the client if their skills match what we are looking for. For example I was working with a very good IP Attorney and he called me and said have you seen this job posting by------ I said no that I had not. The posting was looking for someone that had the skills that my candidate did but was looking for someone just a bit junior. I went ahead and made the presentation and the offer and placement was made. I am not saying that I am that good but I feel that if I had not sang the praises of my candidate he would not have been seen if he had presented himself to the firm. Yes there are times when an employer will look at candidates that present themselves but by showing value of not wasting the clients time with candidates that don't match up or are unprepared to interview we continue to be an asset more than a hinderance.