Recruiting 2007

All signs are pointing to continued heating up of the search market in 2007. Both current hiring trends, and long term demographics seem to support the idea of continued growth in demand for hiring and consequently, search services.

Whether a hiring manager or candidate, one should realize that this 'hot' market is going to attract hordes of recruiters back to the field. This has already been happening since around 2003 when the 'dot-bomb' slowdown bottomed out and started to turn.

While this means there will be more recruiters to choose from, it also means that ever increasing numbers of recruiters will be newbies and marginal performers. As always, your time is your most important investment, and it will be important to figure out quickly and efficiently who you should be dealing with.

Some points to think about:

Most recruiters are essentially entrepreneurs. Even those working for large firms typically find their own clients, find their own candidates and do their own deals. Craig Silverman from Hireability forwarded a link recently to an article by Margaret Graziano talking about developing recruiting teams. The third paragraph talks about the high turnover of recruiting firms, and the resulting dilution of talent at those firms:

http://www.hireability.com/recruiter_news_03.12-Employee-Development.html

My own experience and discussions with other agency recruiters confirms her findings. 75-80% of recruiters at most firms are newbies or marginal performers. The majority won't last long. Most of the rest, the performers, are likely to leave for other firms or start their own. Your attention should be on identifying the performers that can help you. Wherever they are.

Be careful of new recruiters who claim or imply expertise or accomplishments based on the performance of others. Key questions to ask:

How long have you been a recruiter?
Do you work both sides of the desk? (search orders and candidates)
How long have you done both?
How many positions have you personally filled?
What types of positions?
What types of clients?


Simply put, if they have not been a performer previously, you would be better off investing your time with someone else.