The Contract Recruiter - Past, Present, Future

Yesterday

I started my first contract recruiting assignment in 1995 for Levi's. Back in the 90's, there were very few of us, and there really was no predecessor to model myself after.

It was really up to me to decide what was included in this role. This usually meant finding and meeting with a potential client, negotiating a contract, and doing whatever it took to honor the contract. Since technology and ATS's were far and few between especially at the corporate level (many agencies had something in place), I would set up a database to track candidates. It also meant sitting down with each hiring manager to understand his or her needs and writing up the requisition and job description. This was followed by sourcing and screening, interviewing, reference and background checking, negotiation, closing, offer, and orientation.

With this scenario, placements came easily and with it the need for other advisory services outside of recruiting. In addition to these basics, I managed or provided projects/troubleshooting/advice for compensation, branding, infrastructure, recruiting tools/systems/metrics, internal recruiting, career pathing, organizational development, vendor and contract negotiation, compliance and employee relations.

Today

Today, with total functions being outsourced, recruiting has been broken down into many functions: client relations, sourcing, candidate development, interviewing, reference and background checking, negotiation/offer and account management. This has been both good and bad.

Volume recruiting can be handled more easily and more consistently if the process is sound and communication is good. In turn, the cost of upgrading technology can be justified by increased productivity and need for compliance; with better systems in place, processes can be integrated and expedited.

On the flip side, poor communication and processes can mean inefficient recruiting, targeting the wrong candidates, resulting in lower productivity, reduced quality, and wasted stakeholder time. Breaking recruiting down to small, specific functional areas often is an oversimplification of "recruiting" and translates into a tremendous drop in rates and diminishing duties for contract recruiters. With redundant, repetitive, clerical/administrative, myopic duties, comes poor branding for the contract recruiter. Considering these factors, what does this mean for the "contract recruiter of tomorrow"?

Tomorrow

Considering living costs and inflation, there are three choices, the contract recruiter can make:

• stay,


• leave,


• or evolve.

Staying will not be a realistic option for most. With today's rates and few positions, a very limited number of contract recruiters will be able to sustain a living or career. Of course, there will those who dig in, wait it out, hoping to clean up after the bloodletting.

Others will leave completely realizing they can use their experience, skills, knowledge, abilities and beliefs for a new career or life vocation. Some will retire. A few will leave intermittently and return.

Yet others will evolve, staying connected to contract recruiting but in a new way: Full Spectrum HR; HR Business Partner; HR Services/SaaS; Education, Communications and Recruiting; Technology & Recruiting; Deep Research & Sourcing; Compliance & Recruiting; Global Recruiting; and Recruiting & Retention.