Highlights of Gerry Crispin Webcast on Source of Hire

The inimitable Gerry Crispin  recently joined us to share the results of the CareerXroads 9th Annual Source of Hire study. 200 staffing leaders from North America representing 1500 recruiters and sourcers responded to the survey on source of full-time hire in 2009. Here are some highlights from the survey and webcast:

• Internal hires accounted for over half of all hires in 2009 (51%). Most companies are missing the opportunity to use this data in demonstrating the value of providing professional development opportunities to employees.

• Referrals were the second biggest source, accounting for 29% of full-time hires. The majority of these were employee referrals although about one-fifth came from alumni, social networks, vendors and so forth. What’s driving this referral volume? Aided by LinkedIn and other sites, job seekers are working harder to connect with people they know who already work at their target companies.

• Recruiters are moving away from major job boards - in droves. While job boards accounted for 13% of hires in ’09, 100% of respondents said they are making a concerted effort to transition away from major job boards and reduce contracts.

• Direct sourcing is firmly on the map. Five years ago most companies would not have said they do any direct sourcing at all; virtually all recruiters now say they do, and it drives 7% of hires. Half of all survey respondents have a LinkedIn Group tied to their employment pipeline, and 50% of social network hires are attributed to LinkedIn.

• $50B in print advertising is now being spent elsewhere. Print accounted for less than 3% of hires in 2009, down from 29% in the late ‘90s.

Gerry also offered some pointers on improving and better leveraging your source of hire data:

1. Focus on data integrity - collect the right information, and be disciplined about it.
2. Make self-report pull-downs clearer and more precise. Don't use acronyms.  "Other" should not be an option.
3. Add a second method to confirm the first.
4. Realize that one source, no matter how well measured, isn't enough. It's about patterns. Map the entire channel.

Want to hear more? To access a recording of the webcast, click on this link:  http://bit.ly/bTi453