As businesses across the globe evaluate and continue to assess their 
recruitment needs, HR departments are being confronted by a daunting array 
of challenges. 
On the one hand, there is supposed to be an abundance of talent; yet
 attracting the best people is more difficult than ever. While this is true, an equally significant problem will be the resurgence of presently employed workers who
 have been unhappy with their employers’ engagement throughout the economic 
downturn and are therefore looking to jump ship as soon as opportunity arises.

A 
proliferation of new social networking and database technologies is
 transforming the way people “look” for work. More so, technology has changed
 the way companies and recruiters must now engage in looking and finding 
passive candidates. And a new generation of independent, transient and 
“globalized” workers in the burgeoning knowledge economy is creating new
 rules around hiring and engagement.

At the same time, HR is feeling unprecedented pressure “lift its game ”
and become more aligned with the key strategic drivers of business 
performance. Measurement of HR performance is shifting and becoming more 
demanding, requiring practitioners to demonstrate their contribution to high-level corporate goals, not just operational outputs. 
These forces are converging at a stage when many corporate executives who
 look at HR think its job should be relatively straightforward. From a talent 
acquisition standpoint, they ask, “With so much talent on the market, why is it so
 hard to attract and retain the right people?”

These are the imperatives facing the HR profession worldwide. This is not
 simply a short-term cycle but part of a longer term trend that is shaping 
the fundamental way that people think about work and interact with
 employers, families and communities.  Events leading into 2010 have seen national economies shudder to a halt, and 
with that has come a sudden shift in the critical labor shortages that had plagued
 developed economies for more than a decade. Now that millions of
 workers across the globe have been laid off, you might think labor will 
be plentiful as we approach 2011’s increased opportunities. However, is it
 the right or best qualified people that are actively available, and, if not,
 how do you attract the qualified, passive candidate?

Hiring managers in some large organizations are seeing the re-emergence of
 labor shortages even in the early phase of economic recovery. As economic
 growth gathers pace, shortages in certain industries are appearing almost as acute as before the economic collapse. In some areas of healthcare, science,
 and IT, the talent shortage never actually disappeared and remains a highly
  challenging environment for recruiting. The trend is marked and becoming more severe. There is a limited global pool
 of skilled labor, which is becoming scarcer each year.

This is not a
 shortage of people but a shortage of qualified people; at a time when
 workplaces are demanding higher levels of skills and knowledge. Even at 
times of relatively high unemployment, employers face difficulty in
 obtaining the best talent. So, while conditions might have eased the headline 
skills shortage, they really only provided a reprieve from the long-run 
trend of tighter labor.

This is the new reality that HR will need to address. HR people will need to
 keep recruiting irrespective of short-term cycles. The best-educated and 
skilled, technical, and professional employees will be in greater demand, 
harder to find, and command a premium to switch or re-locate jobs.
 Companies seeking highly skilled talent will need to consider strategies 
that will enable them to circumvent this demand-supply impasse. Of all the 
forces that are converging on HR managers, few will be as daunting as this
 demographic shift, simply because it is virtually locked in for at least the
 next 30 years.

The days of “help wanted” signs and newspaper job ads have passed, and a vast array of platforms and technologies are transforming the
 recruitment landscape. People are on the move and the use of electronic and
 social networking tools is affording recruiters and candidates innovative
 ways of reaching their targets. Ultimately, people’s lifestyles have changed, 
and recruiters need to evolve to keep up. 
The ready availability of these applications has led to a leveling of the
 playing field; organizations with media power and large advertising budgets 
are competing with no-cost or low-cost blogs or webcams to post information.
 In this environment, the challenge is not solely about the technology but also the appeal of  
sophisticated and savvy strategies that penetrate the electronic “noise” and are
 able to reach potential candidates, both active and passive.  Technology 
provides recruiters “speed to market,” but recruiting and sourcing 
skills are still ultimately the driving factor in success. Having the right
 tools in your toolbox, can get you there faster.

This raises the issue of what the contemporary HR practitioner needs to do 
to adapt to this new digital environment. What follows are just some of the
 techniques that are, currently and increasingly likely to be deployed in 
the recruitment space and that must be mastered in order to tap into the 
increasingly sophisticated labor pool:

• Use of niche websites, rather than general job boards that have
 become flooded with resumes and frequently do not focus on any one-industry 
or the passive candidate. Niche sites also provide better targeting of
 candidates with industry expertise.
• Making social media a part of the recruiter’s toolbox. Sites such as 
Facebook, XING, and LinkedIn, among others, are becoming a focal point and
 must be updated with information and communications on at least a daily 
basis.
• Use of company or recruiter-specific LinkedIn profiles that are 
regularly updated with information on the company, including upcoming job
 expos and industry events.
• Authoring or sponsoring industry-specific white papers, posted to 
company or industry websites, linked to advertising, blogs, and social media.
• Developing and presenting webcasts that showcase company attributes,
 industry trends, products, issues, or best practices.
• Blogging in places that potential candidates and industry experts are 
likely to visit, and use of micro blogs, such as Twitter, to reach target groups.
• Automating sourcing efforts with web tools and products that allow
 recruiters more time to communicate directly with candidates and their 
hiring managers.  A great example of this is the TalentSeekr tool introduced 
into the industry by Enticelabs.
• Use of internal applicant tracking systems (ATS). Many companies have 
access to an ideal database yet often neglect this as a sourcing tool.
 Previously considered candidates not qualified for one position might be
 qualified for a current opening.
• Building a passive candidate database through online searches and use
 of sites such as resumeblaster.com or resumezapper.com, to name a few.
• Last, the age-old practice of “smiling and dialing,” or cold calling 
and maintaining a personal rapport with experts in the industry who can be
 added to your database or provide referrals.

A key element of the emerging HR paradigm and its convergence with social
 media entails a more focused, strategic, and non-traditional approach to
 reaching key audiences. This might be a difficult task, given the increasing 
demands on the HR professional to focus on strategic versus tactical
 imperatives. Often, HR generalists and even recruitment professionals simply 
don’t have the time to stay abreast of all of the tools, learn technologies, 
and the use of different systems and tools. When the effort on this education 
is made, beware that if your in-house expert leaves your company, this
 knowledge leaves with him or her.

By using industry expertise and thought leadership as a tool, able
 recruiters cut through the clutter that permeates much of the traditional
 media and engage in interactions that can uncover exceptional talent. This 
can be time consuming, but for those proficient in such techniques, it
 brings results and can be successful in reaching into talent pools that
 typically resist traditional approaches.

HR is all about people, but it’s easy to become swamped by processes 
and technologies. In media reporting of corporate issues, we frequently hear of financial problems or operational problems, but not often HR problems.
 Increasingly, HR organizations of all sizes have been shifting their focus 
to outsourcing the recruiting and screening function.

Recognizing the need
 to take a more strategic approach to their role within the organization, 
HR leaders realize they can’t (and shouldn’t) be all things to all people. This
 doesn’t mean throwing in the towel. Outsourcing allows you to manage and 
participate where needed, and better manage your flexibility to all of the
 organization’s needs.
 They will also need to consider how they can best add value.

The complexity
 of the HR landscape means that many HR professionals are becoming bogged
 down in transactional tasks, at the expense of more strategic priorities. 
Much of the work around hiring is tactical, but it is also
 increasingly complex and moving beyond the capacity of some HR managers.
 These are the types of jobs that are ripe for outsourcing.  As well, the 
talent acquisition process cannot be defined and engaged only when hiring is
 prevalent. Maintaining pipelines and candidate rapport, as well as conducting
 discovery interviews, are just a few examples of ongoing activities that 
should be included in your strategy.

Outsourcing some of the functionality can free time and resources for HR
 people to start to looking at how they are meeting more important corporate
 goals. 
They can then be in a position to play a more strategic and valued role,
 availing themselves of data and metrics that provide new levels of insight 
into HR performance and its contribution to organizational results. Once 
removed from the straight jacket of “process HR,” they are able to step into 
the field of “clever HR,” through which they can use their knowledge in ways 
that are directly relevant to decision-makers. 
Armed with a range of key performance measures, HR becomes the repository of
 critical human capital intelligence. It is relevant and valued.

Ironically, many HR departments devote a relatively small
 amount of time to the recruitment function. Even during periods of labor 
shortage, they are so burdened with transactional work that recruitment—arguably the most pressing task—is given too little attention. 
It will be a matter for individual organizations to determine the scope of
 any outsourcing decision, but it seems clear this is increasingly the path
 being taken to liberate HR as it grapples with a multitude of issues.
 Outsourcing frees HR professionals to address the increasingly complex and
 fast-altering meta trends affecting their industry and to have a laser like 
focus on higher-level imperatives.  This trend is being replicated across 
the globe, as witnessed by the growing number and prevalence of providers 
focusing on the recruitment process.

The landscape for the HR profession is rapidly changing and throwing up 
questions about the way the industry adapts to meet a series of landmark 
events.
 There is nothing new in the need to change; professionals across scores of
 industries have had to rethink the way they work in order to meet business
  trends and new technologies.
 Yet new ways of thinking about recruiting and sourcing labor seem to have
 ushered in a sequence of reforms that have fundamentally re-ordered the way 
that HR has functioned for decades.  Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO)
 has provided HR the best of both worlds: a means to ensure that their
 organizations find and place top talent, while at the same time freeing them
 to focus on strategic initiatives. This means that incremental change will likely not suffice to meet the 
challenges ahead.

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