It's just so hard to believe it will be 2012 before we know it.  Around the corner - November, December and holidays.

As I write this this forum has been developing and evolving just like everything else in staffing land.  Sourcing or as I like to call it sourcering or working the staffing magic has never been more interesting.  Along the way this year there were moments like the hiring manager who didn't have a job description, those who didn't do enough to succeed, candidates who failed the interviews, hiring managers being more picky than I have ever before imagined since I started working in this business a few short years ago, and hires that inspire, build forward momentum and moments that you will remember for years to come. 

There have been discussions on client control, and candidate control, interesting discussions in staffing realms and circles, days where I rolled my eyes and barely stumbled out of bed, children to take care of, family to learn from and be available for, clients and candidates to serve, and days where I was ready and raring to go.

There have been staffing ghouls and ghosts, an economy that's been interesting and folks who just won't quit.  It is this that I want to discuss tonight with all my whole heart.  Sourcering or staffing magic - the candidate conjure, the finding of the needle in the haystack, realigning, contributing and rocking the bar and raising the bar as never before.  It is a day of staffing magic with more tools at our disposal, more options to consider, boolean tricks of titans, and persistance in delivering on outcomes that sometimes would make a person without ADD seriously begin to look at the day to day and go: "I do have ADD now". 

Information overload, it is all around us, a staffing ghoul, and ghosts of the past the phone - dare I say it still beckon to us to make that next call and maneuver continuously to the end goal. 

As I have grown in this business I keep seeing individuals falling wayward, losing their focus and well just giving up.

A little bit of magic sourcering may be needed today with passion circumsribed and working side by side such sourcering until the hire is achieved.  You may get that req in an "intake" meeting and realize the job description needs some help, the hiring manager needs a "hand holding" session, but then once the key knowledge, skills, and abilities are mentioned or as I so lovingly call KSAs, well then it is out of that the sourcering begins, the strategy to get to a key hire, the process that brings out the conjuring and sourcering.  You notice I spell sourcering with the sound word sourcer - well that is what I am and have become.  A recruiter is a sourcer, and a sourcer is a recruiter - they are synonomous.  The magic is contagious.

What it takes to succeed today is a combination of soft skills and hard skills together making a complete staffing professional.

GASP!  Dare I say it as a Ghoul and a Ghost - STAFFING AND HR ARE ONE>

I wrote that so long ago, but yet it STILL rings vitally true and remains a powerful point indeed.  How so?

Recruiters view HR as a Ghoul, and HR sometimes views the red headed step child of staffing a recruiter as a Ghost, but yet so connected are they and so important and vital to one another there is NO SEPARATING them if you wish to have success - here's how:

1.  Staffing is a vital component of HR - in that HR must create the job description and grow the business by way of keeping job descriptions up to date such that compensation and carrot development for candidates ie: complete benefits packages, skills rankings within organizations and powerful HR connectivity to the staffing function which enables the talent process to flow.  HR should be a cheerleader of staffing and staffing a vital partner - NO MORE GHOULS AND GHOSTS - just luck and working together in partnership - the BEST ORGANIZATIONS HAVE HEALTHY FLOW FROM STAFFING PROVIDERS, INTERNAL STAFFING PARTNERS AND HR, AND HIRING MANAGERS.  Hence Google, Facebook, Apple, to name a few have mastered the vital process to enable both to prosper.  In some cases HR facilitates the strategic process, and together synergy becomes the vital mountain mover.

2.  Staffing/HR can be vital sourcing partners - facilitating diversity and giving each other vital ownership of data and successful operations by looking at systems, internal structure, build vital partnerships with staffing vendors - etc.

3.  Healthy Job Descriptions build legal defensibility, support different diversity initiatives, determine exempt vs. non-exempt status, set the standard for performance, lead credibility to managers by establishing expectations for performance, and so much more.

4.  HR can make a vital commitment to compensation/benefits which in turn affect recruiting efforts.

5.  The Job Analysis process will be the harmony that builds momentum in the staffing function - Ghouls and Ghosts need not be worried.

6.  HR plays a vital role in succession planning/handbooks policy decisions, and a whole host of other talent management issues such as training and career development - does a recruiter really add value if HR can't retain them a year after the incumbant entered the job and they leave because the strategic peices of the HR puzzle were not given the sourcering power?  Together we achieve much when we learn that talent management encompasses every vital area of the company.

Those are just a few areas I can speak to.  Let not your heart be troubled nor afraid sourcering is as powerful as ever and the talent management show must go on - Ghouls and Ghosts need not be dividers of staffing/HR/recruiting - time to break down the talent silos and realize just how close they truly are.