Comments on: Candidate Pipelines vs. Just-In-Time Recruiting Part 1

By: The Future of Recruiting: The More Things Change…

The Future of Recruiting: The More Things Change… — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:01:39 +0000

[...] there are many intrinsic limitations and weaknesses of this practice. What is the likehood that the best candidate available for a given position is already in a [...]

By: Candidate Pipelines vs. Just-In-Time Recruiting Part 3

Candidate Pipelines vs. Just-In-Time Recruiting Part 3 — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 15:02:42 +0000

[...] Part 1 and Part 2 in this series, I explored many of the intrinsic limitations and hidden costs of [...]

By: TZ

TZ — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 16:32:45 +0000

Glen,

I enjoyed reading your posts very much and also believe JIT recruiting can really save time on candidates sourcing for talented recruiters like you.

But traditional way of sourcing, candidate pipeline building, has its reason to exist or prevail:

1) Organization’s need. Company wants to build up it’s database and in an organized/incremental way. So it can be shared by many recruiters within the organization. It’s an assets building process.

2) Average recruiters’ need. Talented and passionate recruiters are still a small % group. Most of recruiters still need work with some easy to use/learn tool. The instinct and passion of a great recruiter is very hard to teach or to be taught. (Your own example proved it).

Just my 2 cents.

By: Boolean Black Belt

Boolean Black Belt — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 22:49:20 +0000

Jeremy – that link/page has been flagged by bit.ly as suspicious. What was I supposed to see?

By: Jeremy Langhans

Jeremy Langhans — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 21:13:26 +0000

the 5k # reminds me of a blog post from ~4 years ago:
http://bit.ly/8z7nLv

Thoughts Mr. Blackbelt?

By: Boolean Black Belt

Boolean Black Belt — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 03:00:38 +0000

Russ,
Thanks for your response!

If I had an urgent need for 5,000 people of a similar skillset, I would sincerely hope that I’ve built a database of 10’s of 1000’s of those people, as well as have ready access to some major resume databases, so that I can quickly retrieve their records and go about contacting them. I’d argue that I would not have to have had any prior contact with those potential candidates (although it certainly wouldn’t hurt).

I can also tell you that no one can maintain any real “relationship” with 5,000 people, nor can a person keep that many people “warm.” I’d imagine that if a recruiting organization tried to do so (and it would take a whole organization), they would be spending so much time trying to stay on top of the ever-changing statuses, availability and motivators that they would never have a moment to try and source/recruit more candidates.

Opt-in email campaigns would be an excellent practical method of trying to “rapidly activate” 5,000 candidates in an attempt to achieve JIT delivery. However, I will also say that mostly automated/bulk email campaigns do not qualify as real “relationship maintenance.”

If you’ve ever been on the receiving end of that kind of relationship, you know it for exactly what it is – it’s very transparent.

By: Candidate Pipelines vs. Just-In-Time Recruiting Part 2

Candidate Pipelines vs. Just-In-Time Recruiting Part 2 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:01:23 +0000

[...] Part 1 of this series, I explored and challenged the practice of traditional candidate [...]

By: Russ Moon

Russ Moon — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 00:11:42 +0000

Glen,

I respect your vantage point and your skill.

Consider this :

1. What happens when you just in time for say an urgent need for 5,000 of similar position?

2. Can those pipelined candidates be engaged in real time via various mechanisms such as opt-in e-mail campaigns ?

Keep them warm so that pipelined can transition into “just in time”.

Best regards,

Russ

By: BillBoorman

BillBoorman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:58:03 +0000

Glen,
An excellent argument as always. If it is working for you, and it clearly is, don’t try to fix it! I have spoken many times on building a talent pool in preparation of requirement. I believe that this is becoming increasingly important as clients and candidates expectations have changed as a result of the recession. The main differences are:
1: Decision making time on both sides has doubled in duration.
2: The number of offer declines due to last minute “security” fears has significantly increased (in some cases as much as 50%.)
3: There are more stages to the hiring process and the candidates need a much greater degree of handholding/briefing etc.
4: 3rd party recruiters face more competition from corporate recruiters as a result of social networks and direct connections.
5: Clients are becoming more selective over suppliers with the need to demonstrate capability/reach.
I have recently been involved in changing the business model for a number of recruitment businesses in the UK with quite a lot of early success. This is based on building a talent pool within a tight niche of the market where there is still a talent shortage. We work on the basis of finding employable and movable talent and finding jobs for people rather than people for jobs. The sourcer (we call them resourcers) lead the team and find the marketable candidates. Their job is to feed the talent pool and the role of the recruiter is to find clients that want to hire these individuals. The resourcer maintains the relationship with the talent and the recruiters find the opportunities dependent on the stock. Might seem a bit radical but i strongly believe that it is harder to find good talent than it is to find hiring companies. This also allows for a greater degree of relationship building with the candidates, understanding their needs fully and selling from this standpoint.
The key here is to find a methodology that works for you and suits your business, then working it.
Bill

By: Jeremy Langhans

Jeremy Langhans — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:36:05 +0000

Glen,

World-class Staffing Org.’s internal within Corporate America do both concurrently.

You need to have a Team who’s job it is to Engage Talent as well as a standard, more traditional, Acquisition Team.

The next iteration of this logic around “building pipelines” is to think how do you “feed/cultivate” said pool of Talent? One idea is to put them in the drivers seat to follow you …