Ed Frauenheim's reported on the state of HR software in a recent Workforce.com article: http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/25/18/55.html

 The biggest leaps forward seemed to be in the incorporation of social networking technology.  Lawson's Human Capital Management suite even allows your employees to post jobs from your companies website on their Facebook pages and receive commissions for referrals.  That is cool and there is no way to deny that we need more great ideas like this in recruiting.

Of particular interest to me, though, was the following quote from the Workforce.com article,
"Partly because of potential talent wars, HR applications are now the hottest area of business software."

While it is great to see such rapid innovation in HR software it is only part of the battle.  Putting these candidates and contacts to use is the most important part of the recruiting process.

I don't fault the vendors for providing a linear solution to HR departments but there is more to closing hard to find talent in candidate driven markets then giving them more places to apply for jobs.  The solution to most recruiting challenges is in making every effort in bringing candidates into a well run recruiting process.  If your employees friends are applying and getting run through a sub-standard process you are going to waste the power of the network.  Worse, you may alienate not only the candidate but your own employee. One of the least talked about barriers to employee referrals is the fear employees have that their friends will not be treated well and they will be held accountable.

The R&D market is so tight in China that I was recently tapped to write up a plan to engage top high school studentswho are on track to get into top universities.  The thinking being that if you bring them into your network early enough the exposure and connections you foster will aid to your recruiting efforts later.  Word of mouth is big in China and you can't start building relationships too early.

The next level of recruiting has as much to do with offering top candidates the chance to get to know your firm during the interview process as it does providing new conduits to generate the referrals. Add to that earning the candidate's respect, even if the current position is not a good fit or you are unable to offer them the type of position they need to grow, professionally.

I would like to see the next round of software improvements include more CRM - like features that can be used to engage candidates (friends) throughout their careers.  Tapping an informal network of friends in the industry for referrals will bring in another layer of referrals that is currently unreachable.

This is not achievable for most companies that are using the traditional, linear/screening model.  Most HR departments are only now realizing, if at all, that in candidate short markets they need to re-think their recruiting methods and make every contact count.