With the year quickly coming to an end and budgets currently being prepared for next year, people and organizations are looking more and more towards 2011.  While this is commonplace and needs to be done, I strongly encourage you to also reflect on 2010 while you are looking into the future as sometimes the best way to plan for the future is to look at the past.

The question is what should you reflect on in your 2010 recruiting strategy:

What worked & What Didn't: First things first.  You need to look back at all your recruiters and recruiting initiatives and determine what worked well and what didn't (as determined by the key metrics you hold important.) "Fire" the initiatives that didn't work and expand the ones that did.

If you can't collect the metrics you want, then your first step is to figure out a way to collect the right recruiting metrics in 2011.

Why: After you have this raw data, look into why certain initiatives worked well and others didn't. Here are a few examples:

• Did an initiative fail because it won't work or inadequate resources were devoted to it?
• What was the main reason for success of a particular initiative and what other factors resulted in it being a success.  Can you expect a
  repeat performance?
• What learnings can you pass on to future initiatives?

Return on Investment: Remember that not all initiatives that provided the best results are equal as you need to factor in overall cost / time into the equation as well.  A job board that is 4 times as expensive with only 2 times the results may be worse than the cheaper job board.  Make sure to look at each initiative with the opportunity cost in mind and get the most ROI out of your recruiting budget.

Growth: What initiatives did you want to do but didn't have the time or money to run?  Keep a list of all these initiatives and keep it handy.  As more budget comes in or changes in your recruiting strategy happen, you can begin to start and measure these new initiatives such as social recruiting or mobile recruiting. I would also always try to keep some room in your budget for a raining day to give your organization to take advantages of opportunities that they see that may help your overall recruiting ROI.

As you plan for 2011, make sure to take a look back and analyze how your recruitment marketing strategy is actually working for you.  It's as good as time as any to change the look and feel of your strategy for the better.

Originally posted on the SmashFly Recruitment Marketing Blog.