The U.S. Dollar
In recent years, the U.S. Dollar has been losing value. For Americans, this means the U.S. dollar buys less especially in the UK and EU and vice versa. Historically, however, the pound has also been losing value as compared to the U.S. Dollar; even though the pound is still stronger, it has weakened as compared to the initial exchange rate as shown: http://www.measuringworth.org/datasets/exchangeglobal/result.php It seems to be moving consistently toward an economic equilibrium.
Equilibrium Defined
Scientifically, it is very easy to understand the concept of equilibrium. Take for example a tank. On one side of the tank, the water is filled to the top. The other side is half filled. The divider is removed. The water rises on one side and falls on the other side till both sides reach equilibrium.
Driving Forces Behind the Recruiter
The recruiter is driven by economic forces. India is a prime example. It is a country with a very high population density and a very favorable exchange rate.
Scientifically, it is only natural that the U.S., having a much lower population density, would see an osmotic immigration pattern coming from India. Economically and historically, the recruiter has acted as an accelerator. With a good exchange rate and salaries kept low due to a large talent pool in Inda, U.S. employers have outsourced many projects and sponsored many immigrants from India. Recruiting from India has been intense in the hope of securing large profit margins. Considering the huge profits rendered, shouldn't the U.S. be thriving? This is where equilibrium comes into play.
The U.S. Recession
When U.S employers heavily recruited sources outside of the U.S., many U.S. employees could not remain competitive. After all, U.S. rents and mortgages and other expenses remained high; gas even got higher late last year increasing energy costs. Unemployment increased, colliding with the mortgage crisis brought on by the selling of derivatives, variable rate mortgages, lack of regulation, devaluation and abandonment of real estate, poor screening/qualification of loan officers, and bad loans.
U.S. companies forgot that a large part of the customer base was at home in the U.S. and how even a small increase in unemployment would have a ripple effect on the U.S. economy. All of this made for an explosive recession.
The Recruiter's Role
It falls on the recruiter's shoulders to gracefully bring the message to the employer and employee--that this is a new economy, that Americans have to become more competitive globally when it comes to salary, real estate, energy, and products. Americans have to live and work more efficiently and greener. This includes everyone, even the CXO's. If this message is not delivered, equilibrium will not be kind.
Showing posts with label recruiter. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recruiter. Show all posts
Monday, July 13, 2009
Just Plumming Around
The Feather Duster
I only have one plum tree, one tree that hadn't produced well for quite a few seasons. Spring was here and the tree had blossomed. Really wanting to see some plums this year, I ran out with the feather duster.
Harvest Time
It paid off. Purple ripened plums were everywhere. It was harvest time. This took days and additional hands since there must have been literally hundreds of plums. It also included a preliminary screening process, screening out pecked, rotting, infested, and unripe plums.
Selection, Designation and Processing
I had to wash or soak and re-inspect the plums deciding on each plum's destination. Upon further examination, some were discarded. I sorted the less ripe, greener plums and put those aside as those could wait for awhile. Then there were the perfect plums I set aside for eating. There were still bunches left. Exactly, what would or could I do with hundreds of plums?
Jam of course was my first option as these plums were ripening quickly; time was of the essence. I ran out and got mason jars and pectin and made jam for a couple of days in a row. I gave jars of jam and bags of plums to a couple of friends; one friend's jar didn't quite gel, so his family used it as a glaze on a roast instead.
One friend recommended making juice and freezing the juice, so I used some for juice. However, there were still buckets and bags of plums left.
Hence, I googled plum recipes and found one for plum pie. Again, I returned to the store for pie crusts and more pectin (to make more jam and redo some jars that hadn't quite gelled). I followed the recipe off of the internet, deciding to make one test pie. It took hours and was a little tart and mushy. For the next batch, on the advice of a friend, I used firmer plums and more sugar, flour, corn starch and a little butter. The next two pies came out better, but still a little tart, and there were still a couple of bunches of plums.
It has been hitting the 90's here in Dallas and it was getting hot in the kitchen, so it hit me...plum sorbet!! I googled for a plum sorbet recipe. Following the recipe, I alternated between the freezer and the ice cream maker for a day, between the solution freezing and liquefying. Finally, I just stuck it in the freezer. Is it done yet? I'm not sure. Perhaps, I'll try plum sherbet later this week; maybe that will freeze up better.
Conclusion
What the plum does any of this have to do with recruiting? Well the feather duster is like the planning and pro-active recruiting that goes into sourcing candidates and contacting clients. Recruiters always have to be proactively sourcing, networking and developing their brand. Then there is harvest time, or for recruiters the initial pre-screening process. During selection, designation and processing, recruiters must prioritize; develop and implement further screening tactics/tests; and make good matches, decisions or choices. They must be creative, hardworking, persistent, decisive, and always searching.
I only have one plum tree, one tree that hadn't produced well for quite a few seasons. Spring was here and the tree had blossomed. Really wanting to see some plums this year, I ran out with the feather duster.
Harvest Time
It paid off. Purple ripened plums were everywhere. It was harvest time. This took days and additional hands since there must have been literally hundreds of plums. It also included a preliminary screening process, screening out pecked, rotting, infested, and unripe plums.
Selection, Designation and Processing
I had to wash or soak and re-inspect the plums deciding on each plum's destination. Upon further examination, some were discarded. I sorted the less ripe, greener plums and put those aside as those could wait for awhile. Then there were the perfect plums I set aside for eating. There were still bunches left. Exactly, what would or could I do with hundreds of plums?
Jam of course was my first option as these plums were ripening quickly; time was of the essence. I ran out and got mason jars and pectin and made jam for a couple of days in a row. I gave jars of jam and bags of plums to a couple of friends; one friend's jar didn't quite gel, so his family used it as a glaze on a roast instead.
One friend recommended making juice and freezing the juice, so I used some for juice. However, there were still buckets and bags of plums left.
Hence, I googled plum recipes and found one for plum pie. Again, I returned to the store for pie crusts and more pectin (to make more jam and redo some jars that hadn't quite gelled). I followed the recipe off of the internet, deciding to make one test pie. It took hours and was a little tart and mushy. For the next batch, on the advice of a friend, I used firmer plums and more sugar, flour, corn starch and a little butter. The next two pies came out better, but still a little tart, and there were still a couple of bunches of plums.
It has been hitting the 90's here in Dallas and it was getting hot in the kitchen, so it hit me...plum sorbet!! I googled for a plum sorbet recipe. Following the recipe, I alternated between the freezer and the ice cream maker for a day, between the solution freezing and liquefying. Finally, I just stuck it in the freezer. Is it done yet? I'm not sure. Perhaps, I'll try plum sherbet later this week; maybe that will freeze up better.
Conclusion
What the plum does any of this have to do with recruiting? Well the feather duster is like the planning and pro-active recruiting that goes into sourcing candidates and contacting clients. Recruiters always have to be proactively sourcing, networking and developing their brand. Then there is harvest time, or for recruiters the initial pre-screening process. During selection, designation and processing, recruiters must prioritize; develop and implement further screening tactics/tests; and make good matches, decisions or choices. They must be creative, hardworking, persistent, decisive, and always searching.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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