De-Fragment for Increased Efficiency

If this was posted on CNET or TECHCRUNCH, you might think it was about your computer.  But this is a recruiting blog and this comment is about the world of online recruiting.  In the years since the dot-com crash, the online recruiting world has become so fragmented it is now working against recruiting departments and job seekers.

Let me explain. 

I’m a 45 year old professional and I want to put my resume in front of the right people to get a new job.  Where do I put it?  Muscle memory from the 90’s says one of the big boards, but I earn over 6 figures so probably need it on one of the specialty boards serving my income level.  But wait, I’m also over 40 so there are some boards that are targeting Baby Boomers (yes I fit that description) and I’m in a major metro area so probably need to have it on a few regional…. Oh Brother!

I’m a Recruiter looking for me.  Where do I find me if I could be on one or none of these options?

The fragmentation of online recruiting is creating two negative effects:

1. Reducing Recruiter capacity instead of freeing it. Today, a Recruiter is forced to recreate a boolean search in multiple boards.  Wasting time and keeping the Recruiter from attending to strategic opportunities is not doing anyone any favors.
2. Creating confusion and discourse for the job seeker. (In case you think this is only my opinion, here is an article quoting John Challenger, CEO of Challenger, Gray and Christmas.)

The solution is to de-fragment the online recruiting world and increase its efficiency.  How?  By creating a large, naturally diverse and continuously growing database of talent across job levels, industries and diversity segments.  THEN, provide the ability to automate the search of this database and return only those candidates who are qualified and interested in the role.  The net effect would be the released capacity of Recruiting teams (saving Corporate America millions of dollars and allowing recruiters to get out of the transactional hole the job board industry is digging them into) and the ability for job seekers to spell out parameters of their search and be found by Corporate America in one place.

Not utopian, just de-fragmented and more efficient.  Check your computer for validation of this concept!