[ernie] The Interbiznet ERNIE

Daily News. Archived Weekly. Click Here For The Current Issue.

The Electronic Recruiting News is a Free Daily Newsletter For Recruiters, HR Managers, Advertising Agencies and Clasified Advertising Operations

Click the 'OK' to make the ERN your default homepage

Read Today's Interbiznet Bugler

2000 ERI Executive Summary Requires Acrobat.

The 2000 ERI is now available. Order your copy today!

If you wish to receive the Electronic Recruiting News as a daily email, please use the form at the bottom of the page to subscribe or unsubscribe.
Thank you - Interbiznet Staff

Results

(November 02, 2000) The price is going up. The quantity and quality of results are falling. Sounds like a protracted shortage.

November is the time of year when budgets are drawn in all but the smallest and youngest companies. This year's budget discussions will feature some new possibilities. Alumni Networks, hybrid systems, referral programs, job board in a box, recruiting gateways, exchanges and other new categories are hitting the limelight this year.

Meanwhile, the number of candidate aggregators (job boards) continues to explode.

Pity the Recruiting manager who is stuck with a 10% increase over last year's budget. From a relatively fixed pie perspective, choice overwhelms the purchasing power of a lowly manager.

Here's the problem: Recruiting costs are rising rapidly. A budget doubling may well not be adequate to solve the problem of reaching out to scarce talent in a noisy market driven by shortage.

Retailers are giving away automobiles as signing bonuses for holiday help.

Recruiting budgets are heading towards 100% of the first year's salary.

And still, it may not be enough. After all, you simply can't buy what's not on the shelf. Shortages produce weird purchasing behavior and difficult customer expectations. Used to easy availability, customers are surprised and frustrated by rising prices. Vendors, trying to build market share, experience this as cheapness. Really, the market just hasn't been adequately educated about the way things work in a shortage.

Here's how it works.

All that a vendor can offer is a recruiting tool. There are no "solutions" available. (A 'solution' might include a cloning laboratory that produced trained adults at a rate that met recruiting requirements.) In this market, tools all share some interesting characteristics:

They produce better results for early adopters. Period. The later adopters will get fewer, lower quality results. Period. This produces the odd effect that established vendors are more expensive while producing lower quality and quality.
They take time to learn. All tools work better the longer you use them. Although the vendors don't say so, agreeing to use their tools means getting on a learning curve. Speed is the essence here since a customer is competing for results with other customers in an environment where each new customer decreases the effectiveness of the tool itself.
What should be measured is increasing effectiveness against a baseline rather than pure results. These are tools, not answers. 'Here's how much better we are than yesterday' is the proper measurement for tool usage.
Experimentation with new tools pays handsome dividends. Customers should be looking for market advantage, not ass covering.
The ultimate goal of tool usage is to build a predictable flow of human capital that meets corporate growth requirements. The goal is not to produce these results as a function of last year's budget. That's a losing game in a shortage.

No kidding, it's a war. In a war, one side develops a new weapon and the other side counters it. The arms spiral renders early weapons obsolete almost as fast as they can be developed. The only people surprised by the decreasing effectiveness of a given weapon are the ones who don't realize the seriousness of the situation.

- John Sumser

******************************************************************************************

Win a 17-Day Safari to Africa for Two!

Learn how you can win a trip to Africa simply by becoming a Vault member and referring your colleagues to our services.

Your free Vault membership allows you to:

--Post jobs FREE on Vault's Job Board
--Post jobs on top job sites and newspapers with one click
--Network with other HR professionals
--Receive Human Capital, Vault's free HR e-newsletter

Vault.com: the insider career network

******************************************************************************************

Contacting Us:
Call, fax, write, email. We'd love to talk about your project.

All material on this site is © 1995 - 2000 by IBN: interbiznet.com
(The Internet Business Network), 346 Starling Rd., Mill Valley, CA 94941
415.380.8244
staff@interbiznet.com

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe From the ERNIE...

		interbiznet this week (through November 02, 2000)
interbiznet.com E R N I E Electronic Recruiting News In Email Our Rate Card S P O N S O R S <SCRIPT language='JavaScript1.1' SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/N1626.interbiznet/B25959.2;abr=!ie;sz=89x43;ord=+random+'?"></SCRIPT><NOSCRIPT><A HREF="http://ad.doubleclick.net/jump/N1626.interbiznet/B25959.2;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=89x43;ord=[timestamp]?"><IMG SRC="http://ad.doubleclick.net/ad/N1626.interbiznet/B25959.2;abr=!ie4;abr=!ie5;sz=89x43;ord=[timestamp]?" HSPACE=3 VSPACE=3 BORDER=0 WIDTH=89 HEIGHT=43 ALT="Finding business information just got easier."></A></NOSCRIPT> Receive email when this page changes Click Here Find out more About IBN Got a news tip? Tell us at news@ interbiznet.com Our Rate Card Presentations - Basic (PDF) - Strategy (PDF) Recruiting Trends Archives Recruiting Eyeballs Key Industry Suppliers Resume Databases (Over 60) Company Job Listings (Over 4000) Salary Surveys NATSS Enterprise Fidelity HR Live HR Online SHRM Workforce Mag DejaNews Suggestions? It is better to not be on the web than to be on and not know why John Sumser Reality is more complex than it seems. John Gall It's better to do a few things really well than than to do a lot of things badly. If you can't make the necessary commitments of time and energy to your electronic marketing efforts scale back your plan. John Sumser All material on this website is the property of IBN (The Internet Business Network: interbiznet.com) You may download a copy for personal use. Redistribution without permission is strictly prohibited. All material on this site is © 1995 - 2000 by IBN OUR HOME	Daily News. Archived Weekly. Click Here For The Current Issue. Click the 'OK' to make the ERN your default homepage Read Today's Interbiznet Bugler 2000 ERI Executive Summary Requires Acrobat. The 2000 ERI is now available. Order your copy today! If you wish to receive the Electronic Recruiting News as a daily email, please use the form at the bottom of the page to subscribe or unsubscribe. Thank you - Interbiznet Staff Results (November 02, 2000) The price is going up. The quantity and quality of results are falling. Sounds like a protracted shortage. November is the time of year when budgets are drawn in all but the smallest and youngest companies. This year's budget discussions will feature some new possibilities. Alumni Networks, hybrid systems, referral programs, job board in a box, recruiting gateways, exchanges and other new categories are hitting the limelight this year. Meanwhile, the number of candidate aggregators (job boards) continues to explode. Pity the Recruiting manager who is stuck with a 10% increase over last year's budget. From a relatively fixed pie perspective, choice overwhelms the purchasing power of a lowly manager. Here's the problem: Recruiting costs are rising rapidly. A budget doubling may well not be adequate to solve the problem of reaching out to scarce talent in a noisy market driven by shortage. Retailers are giving away automobiles as signing bonuses for holiday help. Recruiting budgets are heading towards 100% of the first year's salary. And still, it may not be enough. After all, you simply can't buy what's not on the shelf. Shortages produce weird purchasing behavior and difficult customer expectations. Used to easy availability, customers are surprised and frustrated by rising prices. Vendors, trying to build market share, experience this as cheapness. Really, the market just hasn't been adequately educated about the way things work in a shortage. Here's how it works. All that a vendor can offer is a recruiting tool. There are no "solutions" available. (A 'solution' might include a cloning laboratory that produced trained adults at a rate that met recruiting requirements.) In this market, tools all share some interesting characteristics: They produce better results for early adopters. Period. The later adopters will get fewer, lower quality results. Period. This produces the odd effect that established vendors are more expensive while producing lower quality and quality. They take time to learn. All tools work better the longer you use them. Although the vendors don't say so, agreeing to use their tools means getting on a learning curve. Speed is the essence here since a customer is competing for results with other customers in an environment where each new customer decreases the effectiveness of the tool itself. What should be measured is increasing effectiveness against a baseline rather than pure results. These are tools, not answers. 'Here's how much better we are than yesterday' is the proper measurement for tool usage. Experimentation with new tools pays handsome dividends. Customers should be looking for market advantage, not ass covering. The ultimate goal of tool usage is to build a predictable flow of human capital that meets corporate growth requirements. The goal is not to produce these results as a function of last year's budget. That's a losing game in a shortage. No kidding, it's a war. In a war, one side develops a new weapon and the other side counters it. The arms spiral renders early weapons obsolete almost as fast as they can be developed. The only people surprised by the decreasing effectiveness of a given weapon are the ones who don't realize the seriousness of the situation. - John Sumser **************************************************************************************** Win a 17-Day Safari to Africa for Two! Learn how you can win a trip to Africa simply by becoming a Vault member and referring your colleagues to our services. Your free Vault membership allows you to: --Post jobs FREE on Vault's Job Board --Post jobs on top job sites and newspapers with one click --Network with other HR professionals --Receive Human Capital, Vault's free HR e-newsletter Vault.com: the insider career network ************************************************************************************** Contacting Us: Call, fax, write, email. We'd love to talk about your project. All material on this site is © 1995 - 2000 by IBN: interbiznet.com (The Internet Business Network), 346 Starling Rd., Mill Valley, CA 94941 415.380.8244 staff@interbiznet.com To Subscribe or Unsubscribe From the ERNIE...** Enter email: Enter name:	1st Steps In The Job Hunt - Two Tales - Salary Survey Sites - Email Resumes - Gubmint Jobs FOR RECRUITERS: Free Email Newsletter Recruiter's Toolkit (New) Interbiznet Bugler Seminar In A Box Top 100 E-Recruiters Industry Analysis - 2000 - 1999 - 1997 - 1996 ERN Archives Our Rate Card Last Week's ERN October 29, 2000 Consolidation JobAA Gilligan Dot Idiot Dot Pro Career Erkel Losers ERN Archives Stocks We Watch Public Companies in Electronic Recruiting AOL CareerBldr CareerEngine CBS Central Newspapers CMGI Dow Jones E-cruiter General Electric Headhunter.net HotJobs.com IDG Inktomi Knight Ridder Microsoft New York Times Omnicom Oracle Penton PeopleSoft Restrac (Web Hire) SAP Student Advantage TMP Top Jobs On The Net Tribune US Search Co VerticalNet Washington Post Yahoo ZDNet Pending IPOs - None Public Staffing Cos ACSYS Adecco AHL Services Alternative Resources American Consolidated Analysts Int'l Barrett Butler Career Horizons CDI Co-Counsel Comforce Computer Horizons Computer Task Grp Consolidated Tech Grp Data Processing Resources Employee Solutions General Employment GTS Duratek Hall Kinion Headway Heidrick Heist Interim IT Staffing Joule Keane Kelly Services Kforce Korn-Ferry Manpower National Technical National TechTeam Norrell Olsten On Assignment Outsource Int'l PGA Registry Remedy Right Management Robert Half Solomon-Page SOS Staffing Staff Builders Syntel TechniSource Volt Watsco Western Staff Winston Resources Work Int'l

[ernie] The Interbiznet ERNIE_00.11.02

KeyIndustrySuppliers

Key
Industry
Suppliers