Recruitment has changed. No, I am not just talking about Lou Adler's "hub and spoke" sourcing model, although there is a connection. Even just a few short years ago, recruitment at most companies consisted of a one stop shop with the words "human resources" stamped across the front door. Especially at smaller companies, Human Resource Coordinators and Assistants doubled as recruiters. As I review the resumes of many of the newly unemployed HR professionals, they have a mixing bowl of experience. Managing open enrollment is often listed right above planning company events and "recruiting top talent." They are puzzled ...

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Thanks to CareerBuilder and Monster workshops, online tutorials, and sourcing blogs, recruiters have mastered the art of basic Boolean. Creating a Boolean search string that contains simple keywords and geographic locations enables the recruiter to isolate results containing the names of individuals in, or associated with, the position they are recruiting for. Unfortunately, Boolean workshops often glamorize the usefulness of this technique. While the results are relevant, they rarely contain the plethora of resumes and CVs shown in examples. Instead, they are a list of names and titles, many of them without phone numbers or email addresses attached.

These leads ...

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Lingering hiring freezes and close-scrutiny of overhead costs are forcing an increasing number of recruiters to develop and execute recruiting strategies on a shoestring budget. As companies begin to move away from pricey job boards, recruiters are left scrambling to find cost-effective (read "free" here) ways to both source and communicate with candidates. Although I am a devoted fan of social media sites, I always recommend a smorgasbord of options before words like Twitter, Xing and Friendfeed find their way into the conversation.  

Social media can be intimidating and confusing even to those who consider themselves to be "tech-savvy." I ...

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This afternoon I participated an an ERE webinar entitled "The Future of Recruiting and Sourcing." At the end of presentation, Elaine Orler, VP of talent acquisition management at Knowledge Infusion, was posed the question, "How much of the sourcing function can be automated?" Elaine chuckled, because she knew what the questions was really getting at. As the sourcing capabilities of online applications have increased, so have the apprehensions of recruiters. After all, if advancement continues at this rate, isn't it possible that one day an online platform could evolve to the point where recruiters were no longer needed? I ...

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Three weeks ago I left my job in Virginia to relocate to Illinois with my husband. Prior to moving, my friends soothed my fear of the job search process. ”Don’t worry,” they said, “you’ll find a job.” This epithet was followed by the ever faithful reassurance, “You’ll need a few weeks to settle in anyway. You will be glad you aren’t working.” I cringed each time I heard the same well-meaning phrases, knowing that it had only been a year ago that I said those very same words to a good friend when she followed her ...

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My first job out of college was working as a Human Resource Assistant at a civil engineering firm.  A few months into the position, the company's Recruiting Coordinator left and, instead of replacing her, it was decided that I would assume some of her responsibilities. I had no knowledge of recruiting, and so, as with everything else in my life, I decided that the best way to learn about it was to read about it. I ordered books on Amazon, read articles online and spent hours at the library. I peppered the Recruiting Manager with lists of questions. By ...

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