New Players & Acquisitions Entering the Recruitment Game, Recruiters Need a Custom Game Plan

As a Chicago native deeply rooted in the recruitment marketing space, there are two things I’ve been eagerly anticipating, and both have come to fruition this past year…the Chicago Cubs won the World Series, and talent acquisition is a whole new ball game, especially when it comes to efficiency and accountability.

The recruitment industry has been demanding change – better targeting, greater efficiencies, more flexibility, just to name a few. There are new players and serious big-name acquisitions and announcements entering the space at a quicker clip than Jake Arrieta’s fastball for the Cubs.  And this is just the beginning.

More players and tools add to an already long roster of solutions for recruiters to consider, and each talent acquisition requires a custom and unique strategy.  While navigating the options, it’s important to keep a few things top of mind before taking the field:

The Candidate Experience Is Still Your Ace

Recruiters can be armed with the best tools and all the data they could possibly need, but if the candidate experience falls short – the Employer Branding Proposition, the Recruitment Marketing, the look and ease of the website, etc., then you just have a fancy stadium with no one filling the seats.

Take the Field with Confidence

As pioneers in the industry, we’ve seen significant changes and shake-ups in the category. These changes shouldn’t be feared.  They should be rooted for!  Sure, it’s a complicated landscape, but it’s also a promising one.  With better technology, stronger research and a robust media pool, solutions for challenges that recruiters have faced for years are now more targeted by skill set, industry, education and geographic area, as well as more cost-efficient and accountable for performance.

Don’t Underestimate the Value of a Strong General Manager

I’d like to think of Shaker Recruitment Advertising & Communications as the Cubs General Manager Theo Epstein of recruitment.  Along with our client partners and the independent community of solution providers we evaluate for our clients, we navigate an incredibly complicated and ever-evolving ecosystem.  No longer does one size fit all.  There are now a significant number of options to meet not only our clients’ quantitative goals and objectives, but also the qualitative priorities. For each recruitment scenario, we provide an objective and custom-designed game plan, recommending the right mix of media and technology along with the appropriate creative messaging, research and metrics.

There’s a lot on the line here. The battle for talent is big, and it’s building. Companies are craving the top candidates, not just a farm league to sift through.  And just like in baseball – to make it to October, you need a robust playbook, and you can’t do it alone.