I was reading this interesting article on workforce.com. It was more of a book review on a book titled “Talent on Demand” by Peter Cappelli. It mentioned something that I often thought about and recently discussed with Don Ramer and John Sumser after the Recruiting Roadshow in Las Vegas last week. It was about to the erroneous foundation for formulating strategies. Even though Mr. Cappelli was speaking specifically about talent management the points he made are so very valid in sourcing as well. Jessica Marquez the author of this aricle says “The gist of Cappelli’s book is that most companies are relying on outdated and ineffective strategies to develop their internal talent, while being way too dependent on outside hiring.”

I feel that, no, let me re-phare that, I FIRMLY believe that our current models for sourcing are inadequate because we do not or have not made allowances for the current paradigm society has about employment. We are sourcing today’s candidates with yesterday’s mentality. How can we achieve our goals when we are looking at the wrong map. The recruiting/sourcing landscape has changed and it continues to change, so ask yourself how come is it that we are using the same tactics.

The article said something else that caught my eye, it said “companies say how much they value their people, that they’re the No. 1 asset, etc. But when the going gets tough, those same people are the first to get the boot…” I would say if companies valued people the recruiting landscape would be different. If we valued people they would be attracted to us as employers not because of our bottom line profits but because we met their needs as employees and as people and word gets around.

If as sourcers/recruiters we analyzed our prospective candidates’ needs to identify what would make someone accept that job, not just skills but would my candidates need, things like what is his vision of success and how would I present this opportunity in the light of understanding that vision. How about his integrity and ethics, how can we appeal to those values when we ruse them out of a job. How about our candidates motivation, how can we “close” them on my position if we do not understand their motivation.

Only understanding the current culture and the prospective candidates paradigms will we be able to identify and use the right mix of tools and techniques to improve candidate generation performance. I guess I am rambling, as it is close to midnight now. I would invite anyone who is interested to engage in this conversation with me, as this is foundational to the innovations to come. I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Check out our new training material for better searching.