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If It Ain't Broke…Well, Maybe it IS Broke: #TChat Recap:

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“Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.” — Arnold Bennett

Not really what we want to hear when we don’t think anything’s broken. Leadership is one key to driving innovation “buy in”. It’s critical for us to stay close to the rapid developments happening in the social marketplace.

Take marketing for example. You’re in business selling magical whizzie-whigs and you need to generate visibility and leads in order to sell them. And that’s what you do — brand marketing, content marketing, direct marketing, media buying, public relations, social media marketing — a complete integrated marketing strategy.

Those new leads that are generated are then passed over to sales to follow up on and eventually close. Some of them at least. Those in the lead pipeline may be nurtured and marketed to so as to inch them along to close.

Then what? Those that do close become customers and are handed over to account management and customer service folk and then —

A year later when it’s time to upgrade their magical whizzie-whigs, a percentage say thanks but no thanks. “Just wasn’t the right product/service for us.”

User adoption correlates tightly with customer retention, and yet, marketing gets them to the door and sales closes it, then marketing and sales sit on the porch and have a few beers. You’d think that an integrated marketing strategy include a retention investment, but it’s not.

Same with recruiting talent, regardless if we’re talking contingent, retainer, corporate, RPO — but the argument is that, after the final candidates are presented, even closed, “management” leadership takes over and whatever happens 3, 6, 12 months down the road, ain’t recruiting’s problem. Humans, Leaders, People are fallible and ain’t nothing I can do about that. This is a complex story.

But I’d argue that insightful leaders understand that reducing turnover, increasing team retention and improving overall quality of fit with workplace culture are huge initiatives in an ever-changing and highly competitive social talent economy. That means everybody pre- and post-onboarding on your team plays a role in “user adoption.” The recruiting technology and service industry may worth over $124 billion, but if inefficient talent acquisition and management keep bleeding me out, well, you do the math.

Recruiting IS marketing and sales. Are we on to something here? Marketing and sales should be customer service, but it’s not. Marketing and sales should be partners in retention. The models must change. Leadership must want to change first and the rest will follow. Let’s keep moving forward.

Thanks for being in our #TChat Community – We appreciate each of you. 

 

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Talent Leadership & a $124 Billion Question: #TChat Preview

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Great news is unfolding or so it seems. It appears that job growth is not only on the upswing but also showing sustained growth. For the first time in years the unemployment rate is under 8.5 percent (although it’s easy to quibble with what the ‘rate’ really measures). All this is good news for the recruiting/talent industry, which, according to Josh Bersin, is a $124 billion USD market….Did I just say that?!

If things are looking up, then, why are so many Leaders, CEOs putting the brakes on recruiting expenditures and hiring?

For starters, 2011 was the year social recruiting took off. Arguably it’s more cost-effective to use social channels than it is to bring in an outsourced or contingent recruiting firm. Add talent management and talent community software, and you’ve brought a new level of automation to recruiting, using social channels, at a much lower price point than would be possible using a big-name firm (or even a few hyper connected talent management pros – we still exist too).

Secondly, CEOs worry about a lot of stuff, and recruiting talent is not always in the top five unfortunately. CEOs worry about the Board of Directors, hitting financial targets, maintaining leadership in their industries, staying ahead of competitors and maintaining positive brand awareness. While having the right people on board affects all of these, it’s not, by itself, a CEO’s job 1. So tell the CEO you need to spend X dollars on recruiting and he or she is going to ask why. And you better have a compelling, fact-based story.

Third, social media’s impact on recruiting talent has changed everything for all of us. I mean EVERYTHING. We’re talking more than LinkedIn, which by itself was a game-changer. Back to talent communities, talent management software and other uses of social media in the workplace – recruiters have to be ahead of the trends and adjust their business models accordingly. Those who don’t will fail. Maybe not tomorrow, but definitely in the short-term future. Leaders need to adjust models for hiring talent as well. This cuts both ways.

So while the economy may be adding around 200,000 jobs a month, fewer of those will be sourced via traditional recruiting. New recruiting models are emerging every month. So this week on TalentCulture’s World of Work –AKA #TChat– we’re going to have a difficult discussion for Leaders, HR and recruiting rock stars about 2012 Recruiting Trends. We rotate topics every week that are timely to bring you the latest and greatest information.

Yes, so much unfolds, but who is getting in on this giant market? How can leaders decide what to do next?

So let’s come together to explore what to do with the $124 billion dollar industry. Because you can’t buy every single recruiting model at once. Or can you?  Join us Wednesday night on #TChat The World of Work February 8th from 7-8 pm ET (6-7 CT, 4-5 pm PT), where recruiting and leadership “buy in” topics are in the hot seat. Join me, Kevin Grossman, Maren Hogan, Sean Charles and Kyle Lagunas for a very special #TChat.

Here are this week’s #TChat questions:

Q1: According to Bersin, the US “recruiting” market is $124 billion, but CEOs are putting the squeeze on costs? Why?

Q2: What kinds of recruiting practices will lead the charge in 2012 and why?

Q3: Does recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) damage or enhance a company’s recruiting practice? Why or why not?

Q4: Is the contract recruiting model old school and costly? Why or why not?

Q5: What other recruiting models, both corporate or contract, are emerging and why?