Yesterday, I was at the Social Media World Forum and sat through a full day of presentations from a wide range of companies. They were all using social media in different ways from internal communications, employee engagement through to sentiment measuring – unfortunately no one actually mentioned the word recruitment in there!!
It got me thinking (uh oh!!)….
A number of the case studies used by Salesforce during their good presentation cited theses companies use of crowdsourcing, as ways of making significant changes (and subsequent) and increasing revenues. Examples were:
- Dell (well they all quoted Dell!) and their innovative website Ideastorm.com. They ask their customers what they want, and they action the responses, by making changes to products, adding new features etc.
- Starbucks and their MyStarbucksIdea.com. They actively encourage opinion and ideas from their customers and are prepared to listen what they say and make changes. They really do listen to and empower their customers to affect change in their business.
- Crocs and their CrocsIdeas.com. They use this site to ask their customers for ideas for Croc shoes and products. They then create what their customers want. So obvious, but refreshing!!
Now the question…….
Would job boards or recruitment companies have the balls to actually ask their customers – candidates and job seekers – what could be done to improve their service? And MORE IMPORTANTLY make changes?
I believe the answer to be very few.
I could see someone like Jobsite, maybe seeking ideas and opinions from its customers as they are continually changing and evolving their offering. But I can imagine big ‘arrogant’ job boards like TotalJobs and Monster ‘telling’ their customers what is best for them!
I believe 99% of recruitment companies would shy away from this ideas, as it would be deemed as being too radical. Blimey, they are still getting their heads around LinkedIn, so crowdsourcing actionable opinion is probably a big step too far!!
However, both parties should listen to what their customers want. The recruitment model is a few years old now, whereas generational shifts have seen society move on, rapidly over the last few years, with the advent of sites like Facebook.
Maybe now is the time for the recruitment industry to actually ask what people want of us, and to make necessary changes?
What do you think? Innovative or stupid idea?
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