Hey, 2006 isn’t over yet! We’ve still got 7 weeks to go but the holidays are upon us and I wanted to wrap this up so I can get started on my predictions for 2007. Most pundits won’t review their predictions. They’ll talk about the ones they got right but rarely the ones they got wrong. I’m going to talk about them all.

You can read my original post here.

2006 Prediction #1

Corporations will rely increasingly on in-house, professional corporate recruiters to fill the majority of their positions.

TRUE

Have you tried to hire a corporate recruiter lately? They are hard to find. All the good ones are working. Rates have increased. Everyone is busy.

2006 Prediction #2

Monster will continue to dominate the classic job board market.

FALSE

It seems that CareerBuilder had made major inroads into Monster’s dominance. By some measures CareerBuilder now dominates. I never saw the gorilla beating up on the monster coming.

2006 Prediction #3

Web search for candidates will continue to be the domain of specialist recruiters working for leading technology companies. Most companies will ignore this resource.

TRUE

Notwithstanding the constant promotion by Shally Steckerl and his cohorts, these specialist recruiters, who are now more commonly known as sourcers, are still mostly ignored. However those companies who use this resource are producing outstanding results.

2006 Prediction #4

Instant messaging will continue to grow in use, especially for college recruitment and entry level positions.

TRUE

Hey, I didn’t say there would be substantial growth but IM use has increased.

2006 Prediction #5

Corporate blogs will have only moderate acceptance by HR leadership but will be a useful tool for leading recruiters.

TRUE

It’s still early days for acceptance by HR leadership but the blogosphere has exploded this year. Many leading recruiters read blogs first and other information sources second.

2006 Prediction #6

Applicant tracking systems will look much the same as they do now. Only incremental advances are anticipated.

TRUE

No earth shattering developments in functionality this year.

2006 Prediction #7

Newspaper advertising for open positions will continue to decline.

TRUE

Not dead yet…

2006 Prediction #8

Recruitment wikis will get started. HR leadership won’t know what a wiki is.

TRUE

Not much has been written this year about the use of wikis for recruitment. One of my consulting clients established a corporate wiki that included recruitment. However, while it uses wiki technology it isn’t really a wiki since large sections are locked down and cannot be edited by any user. Nice try though!

2006 Prediction #9

C-level folks will increase their demand for meaningful metrics from HR leadership. Recruiter activity and results will be increasingly measured. The best recruiters already measure their performance and won’t notice much difference.

TRUE

The demand is increasing and some are satisfying that demand.

2006 Prediction #10

The demand for qualified talent will continue to grow and quality recruitment industry suppliers will prosper.

TRUE

It’s been a great year for most hasn’t it?

9 TRUE 1 FALSE. Not bad!

As always, your comments are welcome and appreciated.

See my Recruitment Predictions for 2007 sometime in January ’07.