So I just spent a lot of time ranting about what's wrong with HR and recruiting, what happened, and how I think we professional geeks can use our unique skills and positions to get around it.
But what of the future? In a changing world economy, a changing HR/recruiting scene, and technical transformation, what is the future of Recruiting, HR and the like?
What in short, are we facing?
Of course I'm always glad to speculate about the future no matter how blatantly wrong I may be, and of course, this isn't an exception. So here's my theories on the future of HR/recruiting/job searching in the next five-plus years.
- HR is further outsourced. I've seen this with Insperity/Administaff, seen it with HR tasks being delegated to recruiting. TAKEAWAY: Keep up contacts with recruiters, they're only going to be getting more business. Just be selective as there seem to be enough of them.
- Larger companies will keep an HR/recruiting department, but I suspect there will still be outsourcing. TAKEAWAY: Besides keeping up with recruiters, if you want to get into a larger company, you'll still want to Network.
- The internet has created an absolutely embarrassment of ways to get people to send you a resume. Filtering is going to be needed and I expect a variety of methods to be tried. TAKEAWAY: Keep up on how people are doing recruiting and adapt accordingly. Also find out how people are filtering.
- Networking is an efficient method to find people as it often goes around the mass mailing methods (and mass resume reception). I expect it to become more popular, and more important for higher-level jobs. TAKEAWAY: Networking will not only become more important, but more important as you climb the ladder (as it already is).
- Social media is going to become a bigger way to recruit – because it will get to active, interested followers. This is not something to discount, it means that companies that post to Facebook, Twitter, etc. know they'll get attention of, well, interested people. TAKEAWAY: You'll want to find social media feeds, job-related RSS feeds, etc. to follow for particular companies.
- Don't be surprised if other forms of recruiting/job hunting emerge – I can easily see job-hunting apps, etc. Keep up on those, but I expect them to change a lot. TAKEAWAY: Keep up on oddball news about job hunting, just don't expect any of it to be permanent.
- Based on the need for networking, the relations of people and recruiters, and so on I expect job hunting to become more "social" – something you talk about, do, think about as part of your life, etc. TAKEAWAYS: Job hunting is going to be an integrated part of your life – live with it.
- People who can make recruiting work in the near future despite the challenges will be in demand. TAKEAWAYS: Be those people and get rich!
My thoughts for the near-future of recruiting and HR. Your thoughts?