The recruiting trainers preach recruiting specialization. The more you become an expert in a particular specialty niche, the less likely that you will become irrelevant to the customers you serve. The concept I have heard is pick an area of specialty that is one inch wide, then learn it and work it a mile deep. Sounds like good advice, but it also is not without risk.
The risk comes from the niche you select and how easy it is to have a niche severely impacted by geo-political change, technological change or changes to the economic cycle. Less than a few years ago, the price of oil dropped significantly and those specialty recruiters working oil and gas were in a very down and slow market that recovered, but only after a few years of low activity. When the Global Financial Crisis hit in late 2008-early 2009 those specialty recruiters focused on the banking niche or the Wall Street niche could go out of business without a backup plan. If you connect your recruiting business to the wrong technology platform or industry (e.g. Beta Max, newspaper publishing) you could find yourself in need of a new specialty area to work very soon after becoming the expert in a defunct category. This risk becomes even greater if much of your business eventually comes from a limited number of clients. I have heard firsthand accounts of how a specialty recruiter was getting nearly 100% of his business from clients in New York City’s World Trade Center. Post 9/11, that recruiter was out of business without a backup plan.
While recruiting specialization may make you more effective as a recruiter, the need to have alternative recruiting strategies can be critical to long-term survival. It is wise to have connections and opportunities that allow for diversification based on economic trends and other disruptions to the status quo.
5 Strategies to Minimize Recruiting Risk:
- Diversify. Pick more than one niche to work narrow and deep. Shift focus to the area that is hottest and producing the best results while maintaining the other specialty area.
- Monitor conditions. Become expert in the industry or category not only as it relates to the candidates and jobs, learn how companies are performing and make sure you know what conditions effect the health of your niche industry or area.
- Network. Develop points of contact outside your niche area that can become a part of your back-up plan if needed.
- Develop split partners. Find a network of recruiters that you can share the excess job orders you have and when things get slow these same recruitment partners can be your source of open orders to work.
- Develop strong recruiting skills. Those with skills will never go long without business. Contacts can grow cold, niches can die, skill will last forever.
Do you believe in recruiting specialization? How do you minimize recruiting risk?
