Happy New Year!  I’m certain we are all happy to close the book on 2009 and look forward to building momentum again in 2010.  I thought I’d start the year with a series on trends in Talent Acquisition.  This is part 1 of a three part discussion – I hope you can embrace the changes – your company’s knowledge capital depends on it!

Talent Acquisition, aka recruiting, is undergoing a tremendous shift.  I spend a lot of time researching current trends and helping companies figure out how to do it – and do it well.  The task of finding, attracting and hiring talent is no longer about posting positions on job boards.  The times, they are a changing.

Let’s take a look at the state of the employment market today.  Candidate job board traffic has been on a continuous decline for 3 years.  The experience is frustrating for job seekers who abhor pop ups, are weary of ad-related content while trying to create a profile, have received WAY too many scam-related (work at home and make a million) offers and are increasingly aware of identity breaches.  Furthermore, the talent shortage is indeed coming; baby boomers WILL retire although not as soon as originally thought, and there simply aren’t enough people in the workforce to fill the gaps.  As well, more than 50 percent of American workers are likely to jump ship once the economy turns around, according to a September 2009 report by Staffing Industry Review.

Each of these occurrences should be cause for concern if you are using classic methods for recruiting talent today.  However, in aggregate, these phenomena have the potential for crippling your hiring plans. 

Change is not an option. In the next issue we’ll talk about tools available and new ways of finding, attracting and hiring strategically.

For more information on hiring great talent – and getting hired – visit us here.