CareerXroads 9th Annual Source of Hire Study: Meltdown in 2009 and What It Means for a 2010 Recovery "A trip down memory lane... in 1997, 28.7 percent of a hires were from newspaper ads. Guess what that number is today..."
 Gerry Crispin For the past nine years CXR has published a free, public report on the "Source of Hire" -- a detailed description (free of vendor spin), about how one group of corporations fills their open positions, in the US/North America. You'll find a free PDF of the SOH report here. If you're in a career transition and want to see a real-world assessment of where and how (especially large) corporations recruited candidates for their open positions last year, here it is. If there's one word you should take-away from this report, as a job seeker, it's "referrals."
In the introduction, the authors write; "If the reader assumes that the data sliced and diced in this whitepaper is truly representative of where firms find their hires in the US, then you will have missed our point entirely. Indeed, this whitepaper, which we have published now for nearly a decade, is constructed as a lab report to examine the problems and the promise of how well corporations measure one part of the staffing process. "
"Our intent is to hold up a mirror so firms can look at themselves and their increasingly critical and vulnerable supply chain. Vendors can help, but only if staffing leaders are disciplined enough to do their part and get vendors to focus on needed changes as a priority."
SOH Executive Summary
- Internal Transfers and Promotions were the source of 51% of ALL the F/T positions companies filled on average. This is a significant increase over 2008.The spike in Internal Movement is a strong artifact of the recession and suppressed many other Sources of Hire. Expect internal movement to fall to more normal levels in 2010.
- 30% of respondents “do not know and cannot even guess” at the size of their contingent population (which averages 13.6% for those who “do know”). If predictions that contingent workers could become 25-35% of a company’s workforce in the next few years are correct, then the business plans and staffing functions have a “disconnect” that must be addressed.
- Referrals make up 26.7% of all external hires. This is arguably the number one external source. The yield for referrals is one hire for every 15 referrals making this category the most efficient source by far. The growth of social media could change the dynamic of referral and firms need to re-examine their efforts to stay ahead of the curve.
- Hires attributed to Job Boards represent 13.2% of external hires. Monster continues to lose ground to CareerBuilder. The two of them account for more than half the job board hires but the category itself is under pressure from company plans to reduce cost and shift to other sources.
- Social Media, while rapidly expanding as a strategy, is still in its early stages vis-à-vis attributed hires. Only about 500 hires can be attributed to Social Media. Direct Sourcing activities are increasingly adopting social media tools and tactics but 2009 also saw a decrease in “sourcers” (who are the most specialized at using social media to track prospects). This suggests that social media has not been leveraged as much as was intended. Corporate staffing is poised to expand social media initiatives rapidly in 2010 as the recession ends.
- Hires attributed to the Company Website are significant (22.3%) despite the obvious flaw in viewing them as a “source”.
- 2010 looks bright. Two years ago (January 2008) we asked respondents about their future plans and, for the first time, more firms predicted that they would make fewer hires in 2008 than 2007 (eventually confirming they filled 22% fewer openings). 2009 was even grimmer. 100% predicted at the beginning of 2009 they would fill fewer openings… and they did… 27% fewer. Last month only 10.8% predicted further reductions in hiring while 48% expect to grow and the remainder to hold steady. The predictions for 29% growth in 2010, if realized would bring the recruiting function back to front and center.
- Nearly all respondents described their 2010 plans in detail. Most mentions were to a) build or emphasize social media; b) build or rebuild sourcing teams c) employ more seo (search engine optimization)/sem (search engine marketing) campaigns and initiatives, d) expand referrals, e) use more niche boards where necessary, and f) reduce overall use of job boards in general and major boards particularly. There were also frequent mentions of training (cold calling), branding and improvement of career sites.
© 2010 Gerry Crispin, Mark Mehler, CareerXroads. Download the full SOH Survey
About CareerXroads: The Staffing Strategy Connection
Gerry Crispin and Mark Mehler work hard to make a difference by helping highly-competitive staffing leaders engage in meaningful dialogue about their practices, strategies and tactics.
They call their small-group, invitation-only meetings a Colloquium.
Since they began writing the first of their 8 books in 1996, they’ve been passionate about how firms design and build staffing processes, the technology to enhance them and the systems to manage them.
Both of these founders of CareerXroads are committed to writing, researching and sharing their adventures, opinions and data about evolving staffing models with members of the HR profession, Colloquium members, and friends.
“We want to know more about the ‘playing fields’ where candidates and employers meet and we are more than a little curious about how they treat one another: specifically how Job Seekers ‘game’ their next career move while Employers tout their latest opportunities.”
We are always on the lookout for stories about staffing challenges, benchmarks, and results as well as the people who live the stories they tell.”
Gerry and Mark sit do not sit on “for-profit” boards, advisory or otherwise and have no stock in any of the firms in the industry. Nor do they represent any firms in the industry but their own. Gerry does lead a standards task force as part of his volunteer activities with SHRM.
More about the CareerXroads Colloquium
The CareerXroads® Colloquium was created in 2002 to bring together corporate staffing professionals who share a passion for critical analysis and sharing what really works (and what really doesn't) in their firms. The group has evolved into a forum for some of America's top staffing leaders hosted by members six times each year. Regularly scheduled webinars on hot topics, monthly commentary on breaking trends and a variety of research and networking activities ensure that members are armed with information and connections..
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