In the worlds of recruiting and staffing issues, Kevin Wheeler stands out as an experienced practitioner and commenter on current and future trends. I have a great deal of respect for him, and have learned a great deal from following his thoughts, especially on recruiting. Yesterday, he posted an article on what he thinks trends are in the coming year. I thought they had value beyond specifically recruiting, and want to share them.
"Every year I try and predict what trends and topics will dominate our thinking, conversations, and technology in the coming year. Last year my three predictions were pretty much on target: Simplicity in sourcing, the rise of social networks, and internal redeployment. I am not sure how much redeployment actually took place, but it must have been significant as key positions remained filled even when external hiring was slow.
Sourcing remains a topic that I am interested in. It seems to me that the need to conduct in-depth Internet searches and apply Boolean logic to searches is no longer relevant in the majority of cases. Cold calling and other traditional methods of locating people will never go away, but are less significant. Two occurrences have changed the game. The first is social networks whose mass adoption, personalization, and ease of use have put them first in the sourcer’s toolkit. Second, jobs are being redefined and replaced with an emphasis on broader skills and on the ability of candidates to take on a variety of roles. This opens the door to more candidates, except in narrow technical areas where specific skills and training are required. A third minor factor is the recession and the short-term surplus of candidates. This will evaporate as Baby Boomers retire and more people start to work for themselves, but this will be an evolution over the next five years.
I don’t need to comment too much on the importance of social networks. This past year has proved their efficacy as sourcing tools as well as sales tools to motivate and engage candidates. What is going to change this year is the emergence of proprietary networks for specific industries or even for specific organizations, if they are large and employ a lot of people. The Facebook’s and LinkedIn’s will face competition, in a way, from networks that are designed for a specific type of person, role, industry, or geography. These more general networks are already offering this, in a way, through interest groups and pages for specific organizations."
I especially agree with Kevin about "the ability of candidates (and employees) to take on a variety of roles" is becoming an essential trait of premier employees, especially in marketing (including advertising, PR, online, etc.). Essentially, marketing is an effort to communicate as specifically as possible to existing or prospective customers or clients. It's all about "telling a story", whether through a 60 second spot, a news release, or a Facebook posting. We all know there are a myriad of ways to tell any story and target a prospect.
It's no longer just writers writing, and art directors directing. It's about communicating. I think the more communication skills a marketer has, the better. For example, those who are not only writers, but also drummers, or painters, or bloggers, or volunteers, or can use a video camera (or phone) have more to offer any business of communications. As the ability to view not only print or text, but audio and video become ubiquitous, the more compelling (and visual) the story, the better. I've said it before, and I'll repeat it again . . . those who are not staying abreast of the newest forms of communications and participating at some level, will be left in the dust.
Similarly, those who have multiple skills of communication and experience are going to be much better prepared to be able to adapt to however engaging people and "telling a story" continues to evolve. Are you doing everything you can to learn new skills or ways of doing things, to grow or to participate beyond what is literally required by your job description? If not, you're becoming obsolete.
Get out there and try something new! Push your comfort level! You'll be a better person and a better employee for giving it a shot! You'll add value to yourself, your employer and your community.