I recently came across a very interesting article written by Lou Adler (president of The Adler Group, a consulting firm that uses Performance-based Hiring to help companies hire top talent) that spoke on the future of online recruiting. After reading and re-reading it, and then giving it some thought, I decided the article was onto something. In the ERE.net post, Adler points to a brand new website called Careersnotlateraltransfers.com. He talks about how this site (which is “still in the concept phase”) can and should completely change the way recruiters and job-seekers approach the hiring process.

“Idea: rather than build the core [hiring] process around offering people lateral transfers, let’s redesign it based on the idea of offering people career moves. To pull it off, it requires the complete elimination of skills-based job descriptions and traditional resumes as the primary means of finding jobs and matching people.”

Adler covers a number of points in his article, but I believe the value he gives candidate engagement is most important. Too many job boards today are one-way, “point and click” experiences – there is no conversation. You submit a resume and hope to hear back. What kind of a worthwhile job experience is that? I’m willing to assume that most candidates looking for career opportunities online are most interested in companies that show interest in them. And companies – this doesn’t have to be a stressful, time-consuming effort. It could mean gathering information from interested candidates (which can be used to build your talent network in the future), initiating conversations with them about their job history and ability to perform in their field, and/or producing creative content for job-seeking candidates that gives a brief over of what exactly the company is looking for in potential applicants.

Adler believes that re-inventing job search means companies making decisions like ‘conversations > resumes’ and eliminating traditional job postings that lack creativity. If companies are to attract and hire the very best talent, they must take a unique approach to the way they go about doing it. It’s time to stand out; it’s time to recruit differently. A new job search is on the horizon: job boards beware.

You can read Lou Adler’s article on Careersnotlateraltransfers.com at http://www.ere.net/2010/07/15/will-careersnotlateraltransfers-com-s...

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About the author:

Dave Hennessy is a third-year Marketing Communications student at Columbia College Chicago and an intern at SmashFly Technologies. SmashFly is the provider of the first recruitment marketing platform called WildFire that enables companies and staffing firms to easily distribute and more importantly measure the performance of their recruiting efforts online.

To read more of Dave's thoughts on recruitment marketing and being an intern at SmashFly, visit our Intern Recruitment Marketing Blog.