Digging Into RecruitingBlogs.com v2.08: The Death of Sourcing

(Feb 27, 2009) Sourcing, as currently practiced, is a short term phenomenon. There is money to be made in the field today because the techniques required to find people are arcane and confusing. Additionally, with the strong exception of Avature and Broadlook's products, there are no useful tools for the automation of the process.

Meanwhile people are getting easier and easier to find.

The next waves of innovation in social networks will be all about making the membership accessible to each other. Right now, finding additional network nodes, new friends or interesting potential connections is a black art. You've got to be a Boolean Black Belt. You need a guru. There's an entire consulting industry built on specialized knowledge.

You may rest assured that this situation will not last.

The web is best when it tears down the friction that separates information from the people who need it. The folks who work hard mining data manually today will be flipping burgers in the near future. The skills required to move forward are unlike the ones being taught. Contemporary sourcing is a dead-end occupation with little in the way of transferrable skills.

Next generation recruiting is about relating intimately, not about mutual discovery. It's about fidelity and long term value exchange, not one night stands. It's about data that updates itself because the relationship is constantly working. Finding each other? Easy. Building an enduring relationship? Hard.

For a while, sourcing will be a high dollar, easy pickings income source. But, in the relatively short term, the need for the expertise will evaporate. Former sourcing luminaries will be familiarizing themselves with the alarm on the French fry machine and the relative difference between Rare, Medium and Well done.

Evaporate, as in "What air freshener scent would you like with your car wash?"

So, what do you do if you're a sourcer (or any kind of Recruiter, for that matter)?

Get really good at being a productive member of an online community. Join stuff, volunteer, get experience.
Develop repeatable methods for discovering new communities and joining them.
Develop community management skills (Jason Davis is a good role model).
Stop acting like an email address is a relationship or a list is a community.

I'm on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Friendfeed. Catch up with me.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Scott Beardsley on March 2, 2009 at 2:41pm

To really throw in a mokey wrench into this extremely long string....how can we be sure that just becasue a candidate (name) is not on "the internet" is any better than a candidate who is on the internet? I do not mean job boards and social networks, but on the net itself.

Everyone is making some good points and the passion and energy is awesome, but it seems like the vast majority of the responsders to this agree that the opening line (Sourcing is Dead) may be a bit drastic, but there is no question I am 500 times more capable to do my job today than I was when I started in 1986.

The technologies have unquestionably made it easier to get more work done is less time, but I still have not seen a RADICAL difference in the talent I place from internet sourcing versus good old name gen. They are all good.

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on March 2, 2009 at 2:42pm

Next January I'm going to give out a Recruiting Animal Award for longest thread. I think this one will be a contender.

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Permalink Reply by Maureen Sharib on March 2, 2009 at 2:43pm

Glenn, I hope so too but a-la The Matrix? Didn't you find that story-line a little...uhhh....unsettling?
I'm also looking forward to BeamMeUp Scotty technology to transport me from Cincinnati to Singapore (I hate long plane rides) in a few seconds - if they can't do that in my lifetime I'll settle for a JetPack a-la The Jetsons!
;)

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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on March 2, 2009 at 2:52pm

Maureen Sharib said:

Glenn, I hope so too but a-la The Matrix? Didn't you find that story-line a little...uhhh....unsettling?
I'm also looking forward to BeamMeUp Scotty technology to transport me from Cincinnati to Singapore (I hate long plane rides) in a few seconds - if they can't do that in my lifetime I'll settle for a JetPack a-la The Jetsons!
;)

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Permalink Reply by bill josephson on March 2, 2009 at 2:58pm

Keith Halperin said: Third party recruiters and agencies as a source of hires have been in decline since their zenith in 2005 when the survey indicated 5.2 percent of hires came from there. In 2008 that number had fallen to 2.7 percent, a decline exacerbated by the overall drop in hiring. “Don’t place your bet on this side of the market having much of an upside when the economic climate reverses. It won’t,” the report says. So, ISTM that there is a great deal of fuss over a decreasing slice of the pie. Let's put it this way: There will be a continuing decrease in the sourcing work which can't be eliminated, automated, or outsourced at not much more than $1250 per month for internet sourcing or $3500 per month for telephone sourcing. Sourcers can NOTexpect to make a continuing good livelihood based on the ignorance of clients/employers about these effective, low-cost alternatives. So, if you like what you're doing and want to continue with it: upgrade your skills and fill a specialized niche. Keith Halperin keithsrj@sbcglobal.net

Points well taken, Keith. It isn't so much how we find passive candidates via Net or Telephone, the bottom line is we're comprising a smaller percentage of hires in the past 4 years, so maybe there's a larger question going forward how much demand there'll be for recruiters' services at all?

I'd also hate to get back into the offshore outsourcing issue exacerbated by a terrible employment climate, as I know that would be provocative only serving to stir the pot further.

Bill Josephson

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on March 2, 2009 at 3:10pm

Bill you are welcome to call into the Animal SHow on wed at noon est and repeat your doom and gloom. www.recruitingshow.com

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Permalink Reply by bill josephson on March 2, 2009 at 3:16pm

Animal, I appreciate your offer.

Having directly experienced the offshore outsourcing phenomenon recruiting in I/T within the Investment/Financial Services and Insurance industries from 1983-2003 moving into Defense Engineering mid 2003-Present, I'd hate to start a controvery in fear of stirring the pot.

Bill Josephson

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Permalink Reply by Martin H.Snyder on March 2, 2009 at 3:25pm

Jeff Kaye and his group at Next Level Recruiting Training do a pretty fine job IMO.

Paul DeBettignies said:

I do hope that at some point either a producer of tools, software, the next big thing or someone, anyone within our industry puts together a well run, respected and affordable recruiter training program..

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Permalink Reply by Keith Halperin on March 2, 2009 at 3:25pm

Bill:

Thank you, Bill. You "hit it on the head". I believe there will be less need for traditional narrowly-based recruiting, but an increased demand for what I'm calling "Solution Recruiting." I will be elaborating on this in future comments....

...............................

Maureen:

Responding to Maureen (at the risk of being accused of being even more self-promotional than usual):
Maureen, you have a very successful and sophisticated sourcing business, and I have much to learn from you. Right now, I am in an early, unsophisticated stage of operations, so I operate much more simply:
If a prospective client is interested in some of my services, I ask them what they need as specifically as possible. I then go back to the appropriate group (internet sourcing, phone sourcing, board searches, scheduling/coordinating, etc.) and see what they think about the possible assignment. At this point, three things can happen:
1) “It’s easy, no problem Keith!” I tell the client “let’s do it!”
2) “We can do it, Keith but there may be problems”. I tell the client this, explain the possible problems, and see if the client wants us to go ahead, anyway.
3) “We can’t/don’t do this, Keith.” I tell the client this and we turn down the search- I want to make sure that if we do something, we do it well or not at all.
I believe in small, conservative pilot projects, so when we work with a new client, we try to perform a little bit of work, submit it, and tweak the results based on feedback. If we can’t get it to the customers’ satisfaction at this point, we stop and charge the customer nothing. If it’s working, we proceed to conclusion with periodic feedback.
As far as specifics (numbers, processes, etc), it comes to what satisfies the customer within our capabilities to do well. Excellent satisfaction of realistic expectations is our goal. By using the pilot project approach and submitting work in small batches, the customer should have very little dissatisfaction, and if we can’t resolve it, they won’t pay for it. At worst; they are out some small amount of time at their end and labor at ours.
Except for the individuals I contract directly (usually on an hourly basis), most of the groups are paid in whatever manner their employers decide.

Hope this helps.

....................................................................

Everyone:

Though this has probably already been said, I believe that the number of people who are hard to find (BY ANY MEANS) will be decreasing, so the paradigm will switch (or has already switched) from "hard to find" to "hard to get". This could open many opportunities for people who are able to get others to listen to what they have to say ("That must be nice...." -kh); I guess you could say they have good "opening" skills.

Keith “Grateful for What He Gets” Halperin
keithsrj@sbcglobal.net 415.586.8265

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Permalink Reply by Steve Levy on March 2, 2009 at 3:28pm

Bill- You're smack dab in the middle of the biggest controversy ever to hit RBC; what's a little more fun in the sun with the Animal?

bill josephson said:

Animal, I appreciate your offer.

Having directly experienced the offshore outsourcing phenomenon recruiting in I/T within the Investment/Financial Services and Insurance industries from 1983-2003 moving into Defense Engineering mid 2003-Present, I'd hate to start a controvery in fear of stirring the pot.

Bill Josephson

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Permalink Reply by Recruiting Animal on March 2, 2009 at 3:39pm

Bill Josephson I hate to say it but you seem to be a cop out artist to me. You don't want to stir up trouble -- on the Recruiting Animal Show? Who are you kidding? You're shaking in your boots. That's the truth, isn't it?

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Permalink Reply by pam claughton on March 2, 2009 at 3:40pm

This has been an interesting thread to wade through. I wonder though, how many people here are truly just focusing on sourcing? With the exception of Maureen, I personally don't know of any dedicated sourcers. Most of my local colleagues who have been recruiting for years, do their own sourcing. It's just part of recruiting.

Another thing I've noticed is that with all the new advances in social networking and various recruiting tools, the job itself hasn't changed. There's more ways to find people, lots of dazzling new technology, but in a way that benefits us as recruiters, rather than threatening us. Why? Time.

I've been on both sides, as a corporate and agency recruiter, and when you're on the client side and have 30 reqs on your desk that all need filling, you often don't have the time to dig in and source and recruit to the extent that you'd like to. That is why there will always be a need for the third-party recruiter/sourcer. We have the time to drill down and tap into all the different resources available that the corporate recruiter does not have time to do. So, the more options out there, the more niche sites and nifty tools, the more 'clutter' that corporate recruiter has to wade through....and may instead choose to outsource the toughest jobs, to me. :)

This reminds me of about ten years ago when everyone was saying that the job boards would make recruiters obsolete.

It's always something. But the strong survive.