10 Recruiting Trends from Around the Industry

by Dave Nerz

Don’t know about you but sometimes I dig deeply into one aspect of a subject and fail to see the broader implications. So, for this one I am looking at many different trends and many different industry sources. A broader look to make sure I see the field of play more clearly. Here are some interesting recruiting trends being reported: Read the rest of this entry »


Comparing Your Recruitment Firm to a Puzzle

by Amy Teske

teamwork and partnership  concept. four hands connecting  puzzle

Have you ever compared your recruitment firm to a jigsaw puzzle?  It’s interesting to compare the two.  There are borders, fine details, vast elements, background space, and the box where all the pieces gather together.

When putting a puzzle together- you work through trying to find the right pieces to put in the right places.  Once they are in place, they fit and make a picture that is clear and defined.

According to CreativeGrid, they defined that recruitment firm guidelines can be strategically arranged based on jigsaw puzzles.

The Process Puzzle:  Each firm has strategic questions of how they manage their process.  What recruiting services are you selling?  What niche do you work in?  How do you manage customer satisfaction?  How do you generate referrals?  All of these questions define the process piece of your puzzle.

The People Puzzle:  People are a complicated balance of personalities, strengths, desire and drive.  These pieces can be more challenging to put in place than process.  Focusing on your own strengths and your team’s strengths make it possible to grow and achieve new levels.  This also applies to working with your clients.  Over time, you become quite familiar with their strengths, and know where you can rely on them.  And in return, they also rely on you in the same fashion.

Puzzle Vision: The vision is the end result.  You know what you want your firm to look like.  You know how you organized and guided each piece into place.   You have a clear vision of your process and the people involved that help bring you success.   If you are still looking for this picture- the first step is visualizing what you want the end result to look like.

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Recruitment From a Different Perspective

by Amy Teske

On February 2nd, according to American folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow, then the spring season will come early. If it is sunny, the groundhog will see its shadow and winter weather will persist for six more weeks.  A Hollywood movie was based on this folklore- Groundhog Day. It reminded us that we really do only have one chance in life to do the right thing and make the right decisions. In the movie, Bill Murray would wake up and repeat the same day over and over. He realized he had a fresh start every day to correct wrong decisions by simply going to sleep and waking up the next day. Read the rest of this entry »


2016 Workplace Trends for Recruiters

by Dave Nerz

JA1HKXSB6M-300Below are six trends for recruiters to watch for this year:

Trend: Workplace Flexibility

Technology and expanding work hours are driving the need and employee expectations for greater options for when, how and where we all work. Employees are now working and available outside of traditional work hours and the average work day is expanding from 40 to 47 hours in North America. Employee work-life balance is more challenging and employees are now willing to switch employers to keep demands in balance.

Trend: Office Space and Design

As less companies are providing full office space for employees, some companies are using office space as a drawcard to attract employees. That is a strange one, no??? With features such as lounge areas and flexible work settings, you will find that some employees will want a more traditional work environment.

Trend: Boomerang Employees

“Boomerang Employees” are employees that leave a company, only to return later. As employees venture off to new assignments with new employers, they are sometimes disillusioned and return to prior employers where the fit was better. With job swapping becoming increasingly frequent, it is now much more common to accept back a staff member who has ventured out. Recruitment professionals need to consider the impact on searches. Don’t eliminate former employees from your search criteria.

Trend: Rising Benefits Cost

The cost of healthcare premiums is on the rise. The result causes companies to rethink taking on full-time employees. This may even lead to layoffs, and an increase in the use of freelance staff to minimize the cost of employing full time professionals. This represents an opportunity for recruitment agencies to position part-time contracted employees.

Trend: Generation Z in the Workplace

Graduates from tech-savvy Gen Z are entering the workplace. As witnesses to the global recession, these young professionals have realistic expectations, entrepreneurial approaches and flexible work attitude. Get ready for the impact! Professional recruiters should become savvy on generational differences.

Trend: Temp Assignments/Short-term Projects

Job roles are now looked at on a more short-term basis, as job-swapping has become increasingly common and accepted by employers and recruiters. Experienced professionals are often seeking a short term “gig” to suit their current needs. The freelance market is also growing, with more professionals offering their service ad hoc as opposed to a full time role. Variety and flexibility are valuable to this employee. Recruitment professionals need to ask about the desired duration as this may be counterintuitive.

What trends are you seeing?

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13 Trends for International Headhunting in 2013

by Dave Nerz

I see these trends impacting international headhunting in 2013:

  1. The demand for recruiting will continue to shift toward employers’ more highly specialized and challenging roles.
  2. The recruiter with international headhunting or global search skills will be in demand in 2013.
  3. Clients will fill easy positions with in-house recruiters or HR, by referral, or with social media tools.
  4. LinkedIn will continue to grow its influence on the search landscape with an ever increasing global footprint.
  5. Traditional job boards will suffer as aggregators like Indeed and Simplyhired gain ever wider use and acceptance.
  6. Other job boards will continue a progression toward even greater specialization both geographically and by industry or sector.
  7. Clients will continue to look for market share and growth on a global basis and will initiate international headhunting assignments to support this direction.
  8. Clients will view many openings as project-dependent and will be less willing to hire permanent employees and more likely to hire contract staff.
  9. The use of mobile and smart phone apps to connect with talent will escalate to even higher levels.
  10. The first contact with recruiters will be increasingly via summarized or speed application processes often identified as “apply with apps.” So the resume/CV will be a follow up step.
  11. The Asian and Australian economies will be slowing so more talent will be available from those markets. This is the opposite of recent years where those markets were net importers of talent.
  12. International headhunters seeking candidates with post graduate degrees will be operating in what is a nearly full employment environment.
  13. Global recruiting will continue a stratification process where research, recruiting, background checking, and onboarding will be sold separately and by different providers rather than in the bundled form to which we are accustomed. Specialist and price leaders will emerge in each layer.

In summary, while many things will be changing, I see 2013 as a relatively flat year with overall business levels similar to 2011 and 2012.


Global Recruiting Update: Korean Economy

by Veronica Blatt

Today’s post is courtesy of Joshua Ro with People Consulting Group in Seoul, Korea. People Consulting Group places senior executives in manufacturing, information technology, consumer products, banking and finance, telecommunications, logistics and distribution, professional services, entertainment, and fashion. Joshua serves as a member of the NPA Board of Directors.

In the midst of global business attention on Asia, it seems like Asian economies are doing relatively better than other regions of the world. I have been noticing people are eyeing Asia more than before for new global recruiting opportunities and to expand their market shares.

China was the strong business driver and the center of business opportunity in Asia and many parts of the world for a while covering most of the business sectors. However, due to the recent downturn of the global economy from the U.S. to the Euro zone, it definitely has affected Asian business markets.

Korea’s economy had been steadily driving the business in general and seemed promising in many different occupational and industry sectors. Starting at the end of 2011, economic forecasting has been somewhat negative due to several reasons:

  • U.S. and Euro zone financial crisis, which will affect trade activities
  • Banking and finance has been in decline, facing high risks both in corporate financing and the consumer sectors
  • Construction industry has been down due to the excessive supply over demand
  • Consumer and retail industries facing slower sales
  • Luxury industry side was booming, especially in the imported car industry where the general index  seemed positive, yet the new demands were mostly coming from younger generations using bank loans instead of cash for purchasing.

And surely from the beginning of 2012, slowly the Korea economy began to face a downturn which has impacted businesses in all sectors. Layoffs have been increasing and many large corporations are still undergoing restructuring processes. Global recruiting opportunities have been limited.

A few trends have been noticed during 2012 in Korea’s recruitment industry, which are:

  • Hiring activities have slowed down and no particular industry seemed promising
  • Hiring process has gotten longer
  • Downward pressure on commissions from clients
  • Client expectations have gotten much higher in candidates, yet the packages offered are limited

There are a few positive indicators. Large Korean conglomerate companies have grown their interest in green energy, wind energy, specialty chemicals and especially these days on the overseas power plant projects. Over the coming years, more demand for global recruitment for foreign professionals is expected. These professionals are in high demand and clients are ready to offer high and great packages. This demand is mostly being seen in very small niche sectors and industries, where it is extremely difficult to locate available candidates.

Many clients are opening up for the hiring of foreign professional talent in recent days. This is actually something that should have been seen a long time ago but has been slow to open up.

In 2013, we look for a turnaround in Korea’s economy which will create better global recruiting opportunities for clients and partners.

Interested in global recruiting? Download NPA’s free white paper, 7 Trends for Global Recruiting.


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