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IBN: Defining Excellence in Electronic Recruiting

John Sumser's
Electronic Recruiting News

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It is better
to not be on
the web than
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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
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If you can't
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John Sumser

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Another POV

(March 14, 2001) We're very lucky to have an extremely thoughtful readership. The following note comes from Michael Brandstetter, Special Projects Manager with Volt Services Group in Redmond, WA. Although we disagree with some of his characterizations (Marketing is a critical discriminator and at the root of the recent Isearch failure), his views merit your attention.

As our industry has evolved, the products and services of Electronic Human Capital Management have energized the old fashioned Staffing Industry. Hybrid organizations with deep ties to job boards or new generation applicant management systems have made solid inroads towards long term viability. Brandstetter rightly notes that online sourcing does not provide a magic bullet. Rather, the job of the candidate aggregation companies is to provide live, qualified leads for a human sales process.

We do believe, however, that the traditional industry is locked in a mindset that Brandstetter describes as a limit to growth. "Traditional processes" are at the root of a good deal of recruiting failure and overhead. The web, in our opinion, offers access to new methods that go far beyond the traditional mindset.

With regard to Electronic Recruiting business models, I believe one should not overlook the core competencies involved. To often, we are caught up in the hype about the magic solutions these job boards/solutions providers offer or have planned for us. One would wonder how we ever did it prior to their existence.
For the past 4+ years I have managed a large and successful Online recruiting department and we have early on discovered the limitations in the job board model and all subsequent mutations and solutions. The quest for a functional "modern" business model by these services is hampered by the simple fact that recruiting is a contact sport and that the person-to-person sales aspect, with the client and with the candidate, cannot be automated. The decision making on both sides of the hire process is based on personal interaction and will be, for the time to come.
This is also true on the marketing side. Web representation alone - just as print material - does nothing for same service value differentiation in the client market. Only personal sales contact can establish initial service value for a client comparing competing services. By necessity, any technological innovations in this industry will be limited to mere workflow processes, mirroring the traditional processes currently in use.
It is therefore no surprise that the only real emerging business model for such services is to combine the clicks with bricks, thereby adding the missing link, namely warm bodies that can sell and recruit. Job boards and the various offspring services have realized this.
The top players enter traditional recruiting via mergers and acquisitions (TMP was the one of the top five staffing buyers in 2000), less economically fortunate ones form various strategic partnerships with staffing companies or employers. Those job boards/solutions providers that will buck the trend and continue to compete as pure plays will realize that their real competition is not Monster.com, but essentially the recruiter who mans the phone and talks to clients and candidates.
The Internet has opened new markets, it has brought professionals and employers closer together, is has given us additional means of communications and it has multiplied opportunities for job seeker and employer alike. Recruiting will never be purely electronic, though, the core function of a successful hiring will always remain inter-personal relationship building.

Thank you, Mr. Brandstetter.

- John Sumser

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