Whenever I am introduced to someone outside of work I try to find out as much as I can about them, what they do, where they work, do they like what they are doing. I
do this because I am interested but also to potentially generate business for
our company. When it is my turn to tell them what I do, where I work and how
happy I am doing what I am doing I typically get the response “Oh, you’re a
headhunter. You find jobs for people.”

This then leads to a brief explanation about RPO and Managed Recruiting Services and intersecting the strategies for talent acquisition and business. And by this
time I know that I have lost them because they typically ask “Is anyone hiring?
Are there any jobs out there?” These questions have become more frequent in the
last year and a half. But my answer has always been the same, yes companies are
hiring and yes there are jobs out there. It all depends on where you are and
what you do. Let me explain.

If you are in the talent acquisition business, agency recruiter, in-house recruiter or in my case a provider of recruitment process outsourcing services you know that
companies are hiring and that there are jobs out there. Yes, in some cases
large market segments suffered a significant loss of jobs and will not recover
soon. Good agency recruiters however are not married to one market segment.
Good agency recruiters have the skills and the ability to move to other market
segments that are growing.

The same could be said for good in house recruiters. If your company had plans to come through the most recent economic downturn chances are that you are still with
your company. If not then you can always take your skills and ability
elsewhere, to other companies who could benefit from your experience, companies
that are hiring.

As a provider of recruitment process outsourcing services everyone in our company knows that there are companies hiring and that there are jobs out there. Not
only that but we also know that as companies begin to bounce back and begin to
look for great talent, the need for our type of service will be that much
greater. Consider the following from an earlier blog post entitled “Is
This Finally the Year for RPO?” dated February 4, 2010.

• Because of the major downturn in the economy, many companies downsized across the board including HR and Internal recruiting
• Existing employees are still being asked to do more for less, thus creating a
potential pool of overworked, underpaid and underappreciated workers who will
be looking for some positive change once the economy rebounds
• Successful companies have been using this downturn period to reevaluate all
business functions to look for improvements and efficiencies.
• Companies are asking themselves “Do we go back and continue to operate as we
did before the downturn, or do we change and improve our processes?”

Since that posting we have talked to a number of business leaders and addressed each one of the above bulleted items. These discussions have led to some great opportunities
within our targeted markets to provide a varied range of services for finding
great talent.

So if you are in the talent acquisition business and you are good at your business you must feel that your glass is at least half full. In my case my glass (pint) is
better than half full it is coming up on three quarters. A more interesting
question is what is your glass filled with?

More on this topic from the candidate’s perspective in a future post. Cheers!