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No help for HR recruiters in down economy

By | March 3, 2009, 6:31am PST

Summary: HR Survey results, TalentDrive, InterActive Applicant and more TalentDrive, a slick HR technology and service provider, has been busy lately with some interesting surveys. In one survey of 7500 staffing firms and independent recruiters, they discovered that: - 52% are investing in increased marketing efforts and a sales force increase as the number one strategic effort for [...]

HR Survey results, TalentDrive, InterActive Applicant and more

TalentDrive, a slick HR technology and service provider, has been busy lately with some interesting surveys. In one survey of 7500 staffing firms and independent recruiters, they discovered that:

- 52% are investing in increased marketing efforts and a sales force increase as the number one strategic effort for business development
- 58% are implementing new services and re-positioning their company to attract new clientele
- 57% predict the staffing downturn will lighten by Q3 2009
- 65% of staffing firms find the overabundance and quality issues of resumes the number one concern for 2009

Recruiters though are having a tougher time right now as:

- deal flow is lighter because of the economic malaise
- the volume of resumes/applicants they must sift through has mushroomed

That fact I have no trouble believing as I am aware of dozens of friends and colleagues who are newly pounding the pavement looking for work. They are responding to anything and everything that might possibly help them make ends meet. They are adding to the resume glut and they’re also frustrated with the low levels of employer interest, unreturned calls and emails to recruiters, etc.

In essence, recruiters are looking through more and more resumes to fill ever fewer positions. That has to be destroying recruiter productivity these days.

Another TalentDrive survey found that 66% of respondents are not upgrading their recruiting technology to cope with this new demanding, economic environment. In all likelihood, this lack of technology upgrade activity is due to capital constraints and freezes on new IT projects. Some new technologies could really help in this situation and hopefully the most needed recruiters will get it.

TalentDrive also found out that about two-thirds of firms are upgrading their talent pool in this down economy. This also isn’t a surprise as a lot of great talent is available. I know a great former Accenture partner who suddenly became available as of last week (I could too for the right opportunity). Smart firms use these economic swings to strengthen their bench and position themselves for rapid success when the economy turns around. Shouldn’t your firm?

Several months ago, I caught Darryn Severyn, CEO of InterActive Applicant, at the Fall HR Technology show in Chicago. His firm has a nice toolset that allows job applicants to respond to job interviews via a webcam. The process speeds up the review time of applicants by recruiters. I’ve hung onto my notes and the information Darryn gave me but never did get around to writing it up. Well, now it seems that TalentDrive and InterActive Applicant have reached an alliance with each other. Sean Bisceglia, the CEO of TalentDrive (and someone who asked me to be on his advisory board for a time) had this to say about the alliance:

“This partnership is like bread and butter-a truly integrated solution for recruiters. We are now able to offer clients a technology that yields a pre-screened interview without one phone call by leveraging advanced searching, scoring, ranking and video animation. The partnership of these two advanced technologies is revolutionary and will change the dynamics of sourcing candidates and the overall recruiting landscape,” Sean Bisceglia, CEO TalentDrive.

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Brian is currently CEO of TechVentive, a strategy consultancy serving technology providers and other firms. He is also a research analyst with Vital Analysis.

Disclosure

Brian Sommer

I am co-owner of TechVentive, Inc. The company has been engaged on numerous consulting engagements, often for technology firms, service firms and litigators. As a general rule, I do not write about current clients of TechVentive. Should that occur, I will note this in blogs. Readers should assume that I have had client relationships with many ERP and other technology providers. Some of these relationships may be quite small and short-lived while others more significant. One of TechVentive's business units publishes research reports about technology providers. As a result, this business receives small amounts of revenues from a wide variety of software firms, software buyers and others when they purchase copies of reports. Some firms do secure reprint rights to these reports. None of these purchases, individually, represents a significant amount of total revenue for me and the nature of it is hard to predict where it will come from. I also provide some marketing strategy and/or market segmentation work for software firms as I have developed a unique database that segments the largest 4000+ technology buyers in the world. Many technology firms periodically engage me for unique views into this database for future marketing campaigns. I do not blog about these efforts and do not blog about client firms while they are active clients unless some pressing news story erupts. If that event occurs, I will indicate any perceived or real conflict of interest. Occasionally, I will develop unique intellectual property pieces for technology or service providers. If I should blog about a vendor with whom I have recently developed a special information product, I will note this in a blog to avoid any appearance, real or unintended, of bias. For the most part, I have no investments in technology firms. While I've been offered friends and family stock and other inducements in the past, I have steadfastly refused these. I used to be a partner with Andersen Consulting and had no ownership stake in the firm for many years. I frequently refer to this in my blogs and do not hide my prior association with the company. I did purchase a few shares of Accenture and Cognizant stock in late - 2008. I have sold some of those positions in late 2009. Readers should assume that most software conferences that I write about involved some measure of fees waived and/or travel reimbursement. I do not charge vendors to attend these events nor will I accept payment for same. I do get reimbursed for many speaking engagements. I generally note at the end of blogs whether the vendor reimbursed me for travel expenses. Generally, this includes airfare and hotel. I do not request, receive nor accept travel perks such as first class airfare.

Biography

Brian Sommer

Brian is in a unique position to diagnosis the winners and the losers in technology and services. He was the longest running (10 years) and most senior director of Andersen Consulting's (now Accenture's) global Software Intelligence unit - a position that required him to pick the best possible software solutions for hundreds of clients globally. He advised the firm on ERP software market forecasts and helped establish manpower planning estimates by vendor for deployment globally.

Brian continues to remain close to technology buyers and sellers. When he left Andersen Consulting, he co-created a dot-com with blogger and former arch-enemy at Price Waterhouse, Vinnie Mirchandani. That firm helped broker efficient services contracts between software buyers and systems integrators. Since then, he's created TechVentive, Inc. - a company that helps technology firms better understand their markets - and Vital Analysis - the research and publishing arm of TechVentive.

Brian still travels the world and publishes an impressive number of articles, research reports and blog posts annually to help software and services buyers make better business decisions. He can be reached at: brian @ vitalanalysis.com

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Maybe this economy will have one good effect.
Been_Done_Before 3rd Mar 2009
Getting rid of people who dont know how to do their job and keeping them out of the IT field.

Worthless employees.

Know what you need to know to do your job...

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