He Who Owns The Talent Pool - Owns The Market

10 Lessons Learned at the Florida Staffing Association Owners Conference

1. The future competition is not just the newest recruitment / staffing firm offering better, smarter and more holistic talent solutions, it is also Monster.com and their NEW career portal as well as other specialty niche sites that aim to own the talent pool through various career pathing and career targeting technology.

As many of you know Keen embarked on creating a new kind of talent management firm 14 months ago and while we are having a great go of it and are making excellent margins, there is certainly something new to learn every time I turn around.

The most recent conference I led a key note for had a woman from Monster.com, Marica Biggar speak on the reality of the future for staffing and recruitment firms. She showed us demographics that were so evident of predicting our future the hair on the back of my neck was standing up. Obviously Monster.com has their hands on statistics that we only wish we had, and the good news is they are ready, willing and able to share it.

She showed us a chart of supply and demand, I think I first learned about supply and demand in 4th grade, and the picture shown on the overhead was a caveman and a wheel. Looking back it was Economics for Dummies.

What was quite stimulating about this Monster chart was the linkage to Thomas Freidman’s predictions in “The World Is Flat”. The jobs and skill sets in America are changing, the talent pool is changing and is more diverse than ever; to attract and retain the best people will take skills and tools most of us have not even begun to think about. We in Recruitment and Staffing need to shift as well.

2. When there is a need and limited supply, they will pay; when there is no need and a surplus of people, they don’t need to. As our speaker continued to blow us away with facts and figures that have everything to do with the amount of money we have in our bank accounts; we learned exactly where we need to focus our efforts, now and in the future.

3. If you want to own the candidate market – you first must operate in a niche specific enough to do so and capitalize on the economies of scale both in your recruitment processes and in your business development processes.

4. I believe that the hardest pill for recruitment and staffing owners, staffers and business development leaders to swallow is that they are going to have to reinvent who they are for their candidate pool and therefore reinvent who they are for their customer base. What worked in the past is not working now and wont in the future. Technology is advancing faster than humans are, and technology does not have get over the fact that times have changed, it just does. People on the other hand are so busy fighting the trends that in many cases they miss the boat.

5. When you own the candidate market you are no longer spending your recruitment efforts on filling jobs, you are working on attracting and capturing candidates for their career life cycle. Imagine how much more profitable we’d all be if we focused on retaining relationships with candidates before during and after the placement, and whenever our niche candidates needed something having to do with their career (advise, coaching, training, internal progression marketing, a new job outside the company, development in their new leadership role) they could get served by your team. Imagine the power if people were tied to you and your firm first and foremost before they began their search.

6. When you own the talent pool – you own the market. If you are the name to know for Talent Management in Clinical Research, if your company is the one sponsoring Career Progression workshops, Leadership Development programs, Campus Recruitment events, then your company becomes the “Go To” for that Brand of Talent.

7. Monster.com says they are No longer in the job posting business, they are rolling our an immensely powerful tool that uses algorithms to manage their relationship with candidates and keeps them coming back to their site, even when they are not in ‘search’ mode.

8. Vocational training is HOT, and needed. If you ‘Re-Train’ people with the right skill and talent and get them ready for the new emerging hottest roles, you become part of the Obama Stimulus Plan and win in more ways than one.

9. When you host a meet-up, gathering, advisory council or web site that acts as a social connectivity point you own not only the candidate talent pool, you own those that want access to the information.

10. The time for reframing who you are as a staffing and recruitment firm is while everyone else is waiting and wondering when the economy will turn around. The time to build your plan and plant the seeds is NOW.

After all who you were coming into the recession is no longer relevant. It’s who you are coming out that matters.

Comment by Jerry Albright on June 22, 2009 at 3:20pm: It's been a while since we've had a busy thread here. I like the topic - Change who you are or die. (paraphrased of course) I'm gonna see if I can invite any other friends into the conversation.........

Comment by Slouch on June 22, 2009 at 3:22pm: Jerry, as long as you have less than 500 friends, you should be ok with one single email. 500 friends.

Comment by Dave Serafin on June 22, 2009 at 4:42pm: A couple of the OP's points are a little redundant, I get what she's saying though...Of course you have to reinvent yourself and your process to some degree in times like these...However, I agree with Jerry, nothing beats making real relationships with real people...Call me old fashioned, but nothing beats picking up the phone and having a discussion with a candidate about an opportunity...LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter are alright, but you can't beat a cold call to a passive candidate that develops a relationship, and explains an opportunity. That's real recruiting...That is why we get paid for what we do.

But you can relate this to sports in many cases, if a batter goes into a huge funk, they don't change their swing entirely, they work on their fundamentals, maybe make a few adjustments, but go with what got to the big dance in the first place...If you've had success in recruiting, and not just judged by placements, but by building strong relationships, and a good client base, then just continue to work hard, and grind, and good things will happen.

Just my two cents - Dave

Comment by Jerry Albright on June 22, 2009 at 4:56pm: @Slouch - I've decided that 200 is my cutoff for friends. Don't worry though - you're in there. I may rethink that number but I'm feeling good about it right now.

Comment by Slouch on June 22, 2009 at 4:58pm: I have no way of getting down to that number fast here on RecruitiingBlogs.com I think my networking could be more efficient.

Comment by Dave Serafin on June 22, 2009 at 4:58pm: I thought she meant by post 5 that you would develop such a strong relationship with the person you placed, that in 5 years when they are looking to leave, they will contact you, and you will place them...But this opens yourself up to all sorts of ethical issues, I would never recruit someone that I placed with a client to another company, that's completely unethical...And if you follow that chain down the line, then 20 years from now you will have no credibility, because everyone who recruits in your niche will know that is your practice.

Comment by Margaret Graziano on June 22, 2009 at 5:04pm: people.....WHO EVER SAID IT WAS NOT ABOUT RELATIONSHIPS?????? Did you READ the post? Do you even know who I am? Have you been to my web site ?

Everything I do is about the relationship and about connectivity.

Oh My, Why are you reading into that I am pitching some new fangled widget, just because I mentioned Monster.com. I have not used Monster for 4 years! What I do is keep my ear to the ground, meet lots of innovators and report the news. Why????? Because I care about this industry and the future of it.

OK - time for being present with the call I am on, so I can create a relationship and be connected ;)

Comment by Dave Serafin on June 22, 2009 at 5:10pm: Damn Margaret, chill out...I wasn't commenting about you specifically, just statements about recruiting in general.

Comment by Jerry Albright on June 22, 2009 at 5:10pm: Sorry Margaret - but, no, I don't know who you are. I like your style though.

Do you know who I am? I'm guessing you don't.

(so we're even)

:smileyface:

Comment by Jerry Albright on June 22, 2009 at 5:13pm: P.S. I like that Margaret. In fact I like it so much it has inspired me to get back to blogging. And I'm gonna do it right here on RBC. I think I'll title it "Do You Even Know Who I Am?"

Watch for it.

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