Social Recruiters of the Future

The partnership is the only option

As we already have discussed in earlier chapters, collaborative efforts and co-working spaces will be the norms of the future. Networking and alliances in this landscape will matter much more than they do today. Entire ecosystems will be built around common projects with like-minded professionals. At the center of the entire recruitment, the biosphere will be the social recruiters of the future.

Take the example of the social media industry. The entire social media management sphere consists of an ecosystem of front-end developers, coders, programmers, graphic designers, video editors, writers, presenters to name a few. These people may or may not work under the same banner of one organization. They may be hired as a unit to complete a collaborative project with a big company and then move on either individually or as a group to other projects.

Socially hyper active soul –Social Recruiter

The social recruiter is the one who will be bringing all these freelancers and collaborators to band together. He or she will be the essential linchpin to connect corporates with those working specific types of projects and refer them to each other.

In this climate of collaboration, the human element of recruitment will be crucial. Let’s talk more about the role a recruiter’s human element will play in tomorrow’s professional climate. In general, there is a deep fundamental shift that is happening in the mind of human beings today. This is evident in fundamental shifts in the way we live our lives, from how we see the world to how we expect to grow; from what problems we encounter in life to what kind of fulfillment we seek. These working lifestyle changes are happening together with the rest of the changes happening that we saw in the chapter on workplaces. It a continuous loop where the expectations of the employees change the recruitment process, and in turn, the changes in recruitment are changing the way in which people are branding themselves and seeking jobs that meet their desires and expectations.

Experience is the king of recruitment

The entire recruitment cycle is becoming more experience based rather than relying solely on paper credentials. As recruiters and companies realise the qualitative value that a professional brings to the table, workplaces are not only becoming more intuitive but also demanding proof of the work candidates have done in the past and not just a degree or a certification showing their qualifications.

By extension, the recruiter who is in the centre of all recruiting efforts is becoming intuitive as well. Recruiters are human after all, and to attract human candidates in the future, they will have to invoke not just analytical, but also right-brained assessments to ensure that after being hired, the deeper needs of both the clients and candidates are met, and ensure a satisfying working relationship.

By now we know that recruiting is a combination of both professional and analytical skills as well as networking competence and intuitive interpersonal expertise. Depending on the need of the hour and the kind of job that they are recruiting for, a recruiter will have to be versatile and use different kinds of learning, knowledge and skills to find the perfect fit between those that need a job done and the people that will fulfil the task.

Entry barriers increasing

Because of these predominant changes discussed above, the barrier to enter recruitment is slowly being raised. Before it was easy for just about anyone to enter this lucrative field and make a living out of it, but today, recruiters with poor social, intuitive and analytical skills are shunned, and they will not be able to succeed in the future either.

Despite these challenges, however, the need for recruiters is rising and will continue to do so. As a matter of fact, over the next decade, we will start to see recruiters as the central player in the business of hiring. If you talk about recruitment as a business, recruiters are trading in human capital, and with the rise of collaborations, consultancies and contract based work, the need for human capital is only bound to grow exponentially.

Super specialization is the game

So, to tap into this vast opportunity to grow in the recruitment field, recruiters themselves will have to become hyper-specialized so they can have a unique skill-set to offer. When recruitment formed in its modern avatar after the world wars, there were no specialisations. Today, there is specialist recruiters trained and experienced in varied fields like healthcare, IT, police services, social media, hospitality and much more. Just like the workers and professionals of the future, specialisation will be the key to success for future recruiters. There will also be different recruitment categories such as:

Segmentation of Recruiters — A future trend

1. Basic Recruiter:-

These are the entry-level recruiters that can follow basic processes like scheduling interviews, monitor appointments, and follow-up with reminders to hiring managers and candidates. This level of recruiter function involves mostly secretarial functions with minimal critical, independent thought and strategic planning. This position will not require a highly-qualified recruiter. In fact, such recruiters will be easier to find as there is the lower barrier to entry, and anyone could do the job.

2. Skilled Recruiter:-

Some of the functions and capabilities that these medium experience skilled recruiters possess are not easily replicable by just anyone. They have specialised knowledge to help you look into every nook and corner to hunt down the best talent. Some of these skills include drawing up job profiles, pre-closing job aspirants, sourcing in specific fields, sorting and screening resumes, cover letters, and applications. They may also be familiar with specific recruiting platforms and software and may be experienced with cold calling, reference-checking, creating advertising plans, and estimating hiring budgets among other tasks that require the greater level of finesse than the basic recruiters.

3. Social Network expert:-

Network recruiters interact with people in the field all day long. These guys are super-specialized, and they hold expertise in establishing deep connections throughout a particular industry. If you run a firm that deals in specialised professionals such as healthcare or intelligence services, you will need these guys because your network will be minuscule compared to the connections that these guys have. Some of the candidates that follow network experts will also be loyal to them because these network experts have placed them before, and have maintained a strong relationship with the candidate over the course of their career. These guys are great for last minute high-volume hires because they probably have a long pipeline of candidates to call upon to fill your vacancies. The downside is that they are probably much more expensive than the previous two levels of recruiters.

4. Internal recruitment expert:-

You may think this is the same as a hiring manager, but this is not necessarily true. Internal recruitment experts have the skills to implement strong and robust processes to match your current hiring and retention climate. They help you establish a hiring culture and reduce attrition by developing and using effective screening and on-boarding procedures. They may also be involved in the appraisal, evaluation and re-training processes of the company.

5. Hiring consultant:-

This may be a recruiter who is working with your company as the primary stakeholder, which means that they are working for you, and not in the interest of the candidates. On the other hand, if you have extensive requirements, especially if these efforts are on-going, you may choose to get a cost-per-hire consultant or contract recruiter. These guys will usually take a pre-agreed percentage of your employee remuneration amount. This is a good stopgap solution for medium size companies who need the expertise but are not able to afford an internal recruitment team.

6. Recruitment process outsourcing:-

For larger size companies that have massive hiring volumes, it makes sense to outsource part for the entirety of the hiring process. What normally happens is that the larger company or the overseas parent company would lay out the hiring procedures and processes as well as compliance guidelines, and then, they would outsource their on-going hiring requirements to a firm that specialises in recruitment process outsourcing. There is no institutional recruitment knowledge built here so most likely, the client or the parent company would rely on the outsourcer in the long term for all the hiring needs they have. Due to the nature of the operations, extra vigilance is usually exercised when it comes to deliverables and quality of work delivered by the recruitment process outsourcing company. The good part is that it frees up businesses to do the work that they need, and not worry about recruitment and hiring.

7. Retained Recruitment stalwart :-

This is the consultant except that the recruiter (who is usually on a handsome retainer with the company) is highly specialised, and can help you find the rarest of rare manpower. For example, if you’re looking for a director level professional for an accounting company or if you are looking for the head of sales for a software company, a retained recruitment stalwart would be your go-to person. Access to the massive and powerful network of highly specialised professionals is only possible by using this echelon of recruitment veterans. Such specialists will charge you an arm and a leg, but many of them do promise a guaranteed outcome and will hand-hold your company through the entire hiring, negotiation and on-boarding process until your needs are met.

These are some of the broad stratifications present in the recruitment industry today. You can be sure that the competition is high, and it will only increase over time, but for a determined recruiter with the skills, dedication and hunger for growth in a rapidly changing professional world, these changes are a gold-mine for leveraging themselves into the stratosphere of the hiring elite.

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