We’ve all heard a talent shortage exists. However, do the shortages vary around the world? A 2011 Survey by Manpower answers that question. In January 2011, 39,641 employer interviews were conducted either by telephone or collected online in three areas of the world – the Americas, in Asia Pacific, and in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). My post today will provide an overview of the findings. I encourage you to review the survey results in more detail. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s installment was submitted by Jeff McGraw of The Callos Companies in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Jeff serves as the secretary/treasurer of NPA’s Board of Directors, and has been a member of the network since 1994. The Callos Companies provides a broad range of human resource services including recruiting & search, outplacement, temporary staffing, executive coaching, employee leasing, and travel medical professionals.

The six Jivaro Indian tribes are spread out across the Oriente of Ecuador. These native South Americans are notorious for three things: headhunting, beer drinking, and resisting the encroachment of the outside world.

Obviously, beer was an important part of the Jivaro life. So this one fact prodded me to learn more about this tribe and even further ponder “what is the correlation between drinking beer and headhunting.”

There are more similarities than one would think.

The Jivaros are the only tribe known to have successfully revolted against the Spanish Empire and to have been able to thwart all subsequent attempts by the Spaniards to conquer them. They have withstood armies of gold-seeking Incas and defied the bravery of the early conquistadors. The Jivaro Indians are known to be an intensely warlike group, tremendously protective of their freedom and unwilling to subordinate themselves to other authorities.

As independent recruiter headhunters, we too, in some way, have revolted from the mainstream and have been able to prevent attempts from competitive threats to conquer us and put us out of business. We have withstood threats from armies of job boards, managed service providers and in-house recruiters. And as recruiter – headhunters we protect our freedom to work independently and to limit our subordination to authority.

Protecting our independent recruiting business from outside threats while maintaining our business and at the same time meeting our client’s staffing needs in a timely fashion with the highest quality candidates can be an awesome task. However my firm and I have found a weapon of choice to stave off these threats. Being a part of a split placement network has given us the edge to remain independent and to compete at a higher level.

A recruiting split-placement network is typically a group of independent recruiters who share candidates and job orders in order to meet their client’s needs. These recruiter networks also enables its members to better serve their clients with an expanded geographic reach, greater access to industry specialization and access to more candidates (and job orders). Some networks provide a worldwide association of recruiters which can provide a global reach for smaller firms.

Looking back at the Jivaro tribe it was estimated that an adult Jivaro male consumed three to four gallons of beer in one day. I certainly would not advocate drinking four gallons of beer but I do highly recommend joining a global split placement recruiter network.

Almost a year ago, I blogged about a possible new global recruiting trend emerging regarding a preference for local candidates over ex-pats. Today, I read another report that seems to confirm the trend in Asia: Western ex-pats are no longer the “most desired” candidates for management positions.

Companies want to hire managers who have a deep understanding of the local cultural norms. In most cases, that means Asian natives who have been US- or European-educated. According to the article I referenced above, both Spencer Stuart and Korn/Ferry acknowledge that these highly desirable candidates are difficult to attract and retain. Read the rest of this entry »

Let me share a few headlines from some articles that are predicting the future of recruiting…

• Job Boards Will Replace Recruiters
• LinkedIn and Facebook Will Replace Job Boards
• Why Facebook will Destroy LinkedIn
• LinkedIn and Facebook to Face Challenge from Google+

OK, I’m confused. If we were to believe every headline, it seems like the recruiting business is doomed to be replaced. It also seems that anyone that becomes the next best thing will be replaced by another next best thing! Read the rest of this entry »