I am very confused. Not that is not a normal state of mind for me lately, but more so than ever. My confusion is about the current state of our profession. There are many excellent Recruiters, Talent Acquisition Specialists and Sourcers employed and looking for employment. From the many on line resources we have access to we all see much of the same information regarding all of the open positions in virtually every occupation. We are all overwhelmed with 24x7 information from all media with unemployment figures. Most recently 667,000 claims last week.

Have you all noticed that there are so many openings and so many potential candidates: I ask who is going to work? Who is putting these candidates to work? I had a very interesting conversation the other day with Ami Givertz from RecruitingBlogs.com. Ami is a very intelligent person. He mentioned that there is a geographical push at work here. As they say in Real Estate; “location, location, location.” The jobs just are not where the people are for the most part or vice versa. I agree very strongly with this. There are many qualified candidates that simply cannot relocate for a variety of reasons. Oh yeah, has anyone relocated recently an had to move and entire household? The cost is staggering. From what I know, a company is not going to pay relocation for an Oracle DBA or an SAP person. You all understand this.

This is the background for what my issue is: What can Recruiters do about this? I have no answer but I do have some thoughts about this. Deeply engage your candidate partner in the entire process of what they are experiencing and expecting. Be responsive to the candidate partner. Work diligently with your client partner to help the Hiring Manager or HR person understand that feedback from them is crucial to the candidate and in filling the position. Set a schedule with both the candidate partner and the client partner for when you will be expecting feedback to share with both partners. Be transparent with the candidate partner and client partner. At all costs avoid the Black Hole; Information flowing only in one direction.