I’ve spent the last decade and more trying to see the future of the recruitment industry. And my conclusions, while supported by many, have been scoffed at by at least the same number.
And that’s understandable.
I’m not oblivious to the fact that trying to see the future isn’t just difficult – it’s almost impossible.
Attempting to develop a technology or a strategy that matches the expected state of an industry in five or ten years’ time is like trying to play the stock market an hour at a time.
It’s more about luck than strategy.
I’ve hitched my wagon to a belief that contingency-style recruitment is flawed and outdated and, therefore, is destined to be replaced by recruitment services such as retainers, managed services, in-house recruitment and tech-powered online services.
I’m not going to use this article to rehash my arguments for why I believe this to be true (you can check my profile for articles on this subject if you’re interested).
Instead, I’m going to reveal why I believe that…
I don’t need to be correct in my predictions to be correct in my strategy.
Future-proofing, on the face of it, sounds like a pointless luxury invented by insurance companies.
How can you protect something from a future that, by definition, is unknown?
Because, even though no future-proofing strategy can provide 100% protection, it can reduce the odds of failure to as close to zero as makes no odds.
The strict definition of future-proofing is to take an action that makes something UNLIKELY to become obsolete.
Not impossible. But unlikely.
Contrast that with having NO future-proofing plan. What are the odds of becoming obsolete if you take zero action?
As close to 100% as makes no odds.
The recruitment industry isn’t going to stay the same. If it did, it would be the only industry in the history of the world to do so. Everything changes. Culture. Technology. Expectations. Success rates.
It might not be possible to accurately predict the winds of change, but you can be certain that if you take NO steps to move with the times you are GUARANTEED to be left behind.
To become obsolete.
Future-proofing isn’t about waiting for someone to give you a perfect prediction of what happens next so you can react.
And it’s not about waiting to see how things change so you can act with certainty.
Because by then it’ll be too late.
Future-proofing is about preparing for the MOST LIKELY possibilities.
Throw out the idea that you need to pick one rigid strategy and stick to it religiously.
There’s no rule that says future-proofing means putting all your eggs in one basket and hoping that the basket isn’t made from wet tissue.
A smart future-proofing strategy should involve preparing for multiple outcomes and engineering flexibility into your processes so you can react and adjust quickly as possibilities become realities.
In recruitment, future-proofing might mean…
- Developing a variety of recruitment services
- Having the ability to create bespoke solutions
- Testing and adopting new technologies and platforms
- Generating useful data and feedback from completed campaigns
In short, be prepared to be adaptable. It’s very hard to break something that is flexible.
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This article could be viewed as a warning to inflexible recruiters who insist that contingency-style recruitment isn’t in trouble and is going to be around forever.
But I’m not writing for them. They probably won’t read this anyway (unless it’s to hate-read it and leave a snarky comment), and that’s fine by me.
This article is for people committed to continually improving their recruitment skills for the benefit of their clients and their candidates.
It’s for people who are always looking for opportunities to learn new recruitment strategies and are open-minded enough to consider new ideas.
'If this sounds like you, I’ve written a new book called 'Redundant? How to Future Proof Your Recruitment Business'
It’s a follow-up to my earlier book, The Death of Contingency Recruitment, and it outlines the seven steps needed to future-proof your recruitment business against the factors that threaten the existing paradigm.
And it’s not a theoretical treatment. It’s based on a proven strategy that has already been adopted by over 1000+ recruiters who have collectively generated £70M+ in retained fees using the i-intro® method.