Forbes makes a great observation on recruiters: use them to source talent

Recently, Forbes had an interesting article: The 9 Hottest Trends in Corporate Recruiting. Although, the author was talking about internal recruiters, much of the article can be applied to external recruiters as well. In particular, this point stuck out:

3. Recruiters as Sourcers not Recruiters.

As companies globalize and look for more specialized skills, the role of the recruiter becomes more and more important. And where do we want recruiters spending their time? Interviewing people? Or sourcing great candidates?

The highest-performing companies are now pushing more and more responsibility onto the shoulders of hiring managers (training them how to interview) and letting recruiters focus on high-powered sourcing and initial screening. The more “assessment” we push to hiring managers the better.

He’s right that hiring managers tend to be extremely busy and that sourcing candidates is usually not an efficient use of their time. He’s also right that sourcing and initial screening are a job for specialists–and external recruiters are in fact those specialists. I would quibble with one thing: recruiters can also perform a great deal of the assessment work when they have the right training and tools.

And behavioral interviewing is the tool that is really needed in this day and age. With our deep understanding of behavioral interviewing, we take the burden of sourcing, screening, and initial assessment off the shoulders of our clients. In fact, we hold the initial interviews, based on which we put together a short list of candidates for the client. On average, a client has to hold only 3.3 of their own interviews to find the right client.

So we agree with Forbes: use us as sourcers and screeners. But don’t stop there–we are ready to assess based on a solid behavioral-based approach.

Matt
The Key Corporate Services Blog Team
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