With a very challenging 2009 finally
drawing to an end, now seems like the perfect time to make some
predictions about what we can expect in the world of recruitment during
2010. Before I do that though I wanted to briefly reflect on the last
12 months.
Although it may well be remembered for a number of other things,
2009 was certainly the year that the term Social Recruiting began to
enter the broader recruitment lexicon. There has been a huge amount of
talk about how social media will change recruitment and unfortunately
much of it is just self-serving rubbish.
With this in mind my heros of 2009 are ERE
who put on two excellent Social Recruiting Summits to unpick what is
actually happening by bringing people together to discuss genuine case
studies. I attended both events and they were real highlights of the
year for me, with the opportunity to meet some truly great thinkers and
practitioners. November’s summit illustrated just how quickly the
companies embracing social recruiting are making progress and I’m now
absolutely convinced that what we’re seeing is a genuine revolution and
not just the latest fad
So what’s in store for 2010? Here are a few thoughts: –
The Recruitment Market
A quick Twitter poll I did the other day revealed that most people
are rightly cautious about 2010 and I would predict that we are in for
another challenging year. Corporate recruitment will most probably pick
up but this will be potentially overwhelmed by acute difficulties in
the public sector. While some people will still do well; it could be a
very painful year for those in the industry who aren’t innovating
quickly and effectively enough.
Social Recruiting
The next 12 months are going to tell us everything we need to know
about how much time it’s going to take for Social Recruiting to move
through its adoption curve. There are lots of smart companies who have
been using a quiet 2009 to plan social activity for 2010 and I’m really
looking forward to seeing much experimentation, a growing body of case
studies and more great events to discuss them. I’m not looking forward
to the inevitable proliferation of bandwagon jumping and snake oil
selling which could make “caveat emptor” the most used Social
Recruiting phrase of the year!
Job Boards
The future of job boards seems to be a much discussed topic at the
moment and something I’m going to be writing a bit more about next
year. The key thing is that the debate shouldn’t be a live or die one;
it’s all about the shades of grey. Job Boards are not some kind of
unified entity, they are all different depending on the industries they
serve and countries they are based in. With the pressures in the
marketplace and the growth of social recruiting, 2010 should be an
interesting year for many of them. As well as some inevitable market
consolidation I’m expecting to see more innovation in the next 12
months than we’ve seen in the last ten years
Newspapers
By this time next year we’ll know whether pay walls work and once we
do it’ll certainly move the debate about the future of newspapers
forward. I could be wrong but I’m expecting the default “but we’ll
always have newspapers” camp to be slightly less hardcore in 12 months
time
So all in all 2010 may well be challenging but it certainly isn’t going to be dull!
Have a great Christmas!
