This is part 7 of our Tru Recruitment ebook series.

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e Tru Files
NEW ROLE OF THE RECRUITER
7 @BillBoorman and Maria Rosploch
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2. 8,00010 EVENTS
field of recruiting. 48
We scoured
presentations and
conversations from
the last twelve
months of TRU
events to bring you
the best forward-looking
ideas in the
ATTENDEES BIG IDEAS

3. /03
IN A WORLD WHERE PROFESSIONALS AND
HIRING MANAGERS ARE JUST THREE DEGREES
OF SEPARATION FROM HUNDREDS OF
THOUSANDS (IF NOT MILLIONS) OF PEOPLE,
WHAT EXACTLY IS THE ROLE OF A RECRUITER?
A LOOK AT THREE NEW
RECRUITING ROLES

4. /04
THE THREE FUTURE ROLES OF RECRUITING
TALENT
ATTRACTORS
SUPER
RECRUITERS
LOGISTICS

5. In the 1970s the evolutionary psychologist Robin Dunbar posited
that as members of social groups, people are able to manage
approximately 150 relationships.
His groundbreaking work began with the study of monkeys and apes, but Dunbar extrapolated
his findings to apply to humans in business and the military. Beyond 150 individuals in your
tribe, Dunbar explained, and you exceed your cognitive limits.1 The theorem came to be known
among social scientists as Dunbar’s Number.
And of course it makes intuitive sense. Pre-Facebook and LinkedIn, a single individual could
only claim to know well a modest number of colleagues. Reaching beyond your immediate
network required significant effort (e.g. attending social events, making cold calls, asking
for introductions). In such a world, the role of the recruiter was tremendously powerful. The
recruiter’s black book was a network multiplier, reaching across companies and geographies to
identify and recruit talent for critical professional roles.
Dunbar’s Number still holds sway today. Look at your 500+ connections on LinkedIn, and it’s
likely you don’t really know but a small fraction of the whole very well. But what’s changed
is that job seekers no longer depend on the recruiter’s black book to reach beyond their
immediate network.
/05
1 http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20121206195559-1213-how-large-is-your-network-the-power-of-2nd-and-3rd-degree-connections

6. Through dozens of massive social networks and tens of thousands of niche networks,
candidates can identify jobs, and how members of their own network are connected to
those jobs. (LinkedIn alone hosted a staggering 5.7 billion professional searches in 2012.2)
Job seekers can also access what it’s like to work at a particular company, salary information,
corporate benefits and culture … all the information a recruiter once controlled. And the reverse
is also true: Companies seeking talent are no longer wholly dependent on recruiters—at least
not for 80 percent of the jobs they need to fill.
And keep in mind social media isn’t the only technology reshaping recruiters’ roles. Recruiters
used to screen the initial applicant pool and make recommendations for first- and second-round
interviews; however, more and more the initial screening and assessment function is handled by
an applicant tracking system (ATS). Applicant tracking systems have become more robust and
now include more refined capabilities—such as sourcing, assessing skills and fit based on data
gleaned from social networks, and hosting on-demand video interviews.
In a world in which professionals and hiring managers are just three degrees of separation from
hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of people, what exactly is the role of a recruiter? And
if applicant tracking systems continue to grow in scope and accuracy—essentially automating
many aspects of the recruiter’s job—what responsibilities will recruiters own in the future?
2 http://www.slideshare.net/r39132/linkedins-segmentation-targeting-platform
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ASSESSMENTS
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VIDEO INTERVIEWING
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For a more detailed look at
the technologies changing
how companies screen
potential candidates, see
Assessments ebook and
Video Interviewing ebook.
Visit www.kellyocg.com/
Knowledge/The_Tru_Files/
/06

7. THE NEW ROLE OF
THE RECRUITER
Based on all these developments, we see three primary
recruiting roles taking shape.
Super Recruiters: These are big-picture recruiting strategists who will steer the employer
brand, influence outsourcing and technology purchasing, and collaborate with corporate talent
management executives. Super recruiters won’t be involved in day-to-day hiring decisions, but
will help plan for future talent management needs and infrastructure.
Talent Attractors: This new breed of recruiter won’t be responsible for sourcing any
individual candidate, but rather will build long-term relationships with professionals who may
either become candidates in the future or influence future candidates. Talent
Attractors will borrow lessons from so-called content marketers. They will behave as publishers
and view professionals as their audience. Rather than promote their own brand, they will
answer questions and publish educational information to help would-be job seekers.
/07

8. Using social media channels, they will form relationships with in-demand professionals and
grow to understand their needs and interests. Essentially, Talent Attractors will take the long
view, forming connections that may bear fruit months or years from now.
Logistics: Finally, the largest portion of recruiters will continue to work as process
administrators through promoting open positions, sourcing talent from existing and new talent
pools, scheduling interviews for hiring managers and teams, and overseeing assessments.
These individuals will not influence hiring decisions—this role will fall to internal hiring
managers—but will manage the end-to-end hiring process. Most recruiters today occupy the
logistics category, even though they may describe themselves differently.
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9. /09
RECRUITMENT
OUTSOURCING
We believe companies will continue to wrest greater control over
their relationship with job candidates and bring more and more
recruiting activities in-house.
After all, if some portion of your recruiting team is engaged in longer-term relationship-building
with candidates, then it makes sense that it’s an internal function. The problem is that
many companies simply don’t have the skill sets in place to master the end-to-end recruiting
function—particularly in certain specialized fields or dispersed geographies. We see two
interesting trends evolving related to recruiting outsourcing:
Agency Outsourcing: In the past, companies would engage agencies to fill 80 percent
of open positions (i.e. a wide array of repeatable positions) and use internal recruiting teams
to source the more specialized 20 percent (i.e. scarce but strategically critical talent such as
developers or engineers). In fact, the situation should be reversed. Companies should hire
agencies to source the niche, high-demand roles—where access, speed and domain expertise
are critical—and source general administrative and operational roles using in-house recruiters.

10. We predict generalized recruiting agencies will struggle to compete against niche players
with unique access to specialized talent. For example, a niche player may employ a retired
automotive engineer to recruit a highly specialized type of engineering talent within a specific
geographical location. The margins for such engagements are much higher than generalized
recruiting, and a small player can compete against the largest agencies if they’ve built
relationships in these micro-communities.
By the same token, the largest agencies that employ recruiting generalists find strong
competition from in-house recruiters because the level of expertise needed to achieve general
administrative and operations recruiting is lower.
Recruitment Process Outsourcing: A second model is the RPO. As companies
try to pull more recruiting responsibility back in-house, RPOs offer companies an intermediate
step between outsourcing 80 percent of recruiting efforts and bringing the same percentage
in-house (which may take eight to ten years to complete). Like agencies, RPOs have expertise
in specific talent disciplines or geographies. But even more, RPOs also help companies develop
critical competencies, such as effective processes and procedures, and regulatory and risk-management
expertise.
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11. /11
As parts and portions of the recruiting function get re-assigned, whether through automation or
outsourcing, it’s important to remember that the outlook for recruiters is actually quite exciting.
Some of the administrative, paper-pushing duties of recruiting will be taken up by technology
and recruiters will have more time to focus on attraction rather than rejection.
For recruiters hoping to evolve quickly and embrace the more strategic roles of Super Recruiters
and Talent Attractors, it’s critical they think about acquiring new skills in areas like financial
management, forecasting and statistics (for the former), and digital marketing and social media
(for the latter). We would compare the current rate of change in recruiting to that which felled
many marketers in the last five to seven years. As any veteran marketer would share, you must
adapt or suffer the ignominy of irrelevance.

12. NEW ROLE OF THE RECRUITER:
ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS
WHERE TO
START?
Weighing the new role
of the recruiters in your
organization will take time,
and a long process of study
and analysis. Consider
beginning with these steps:
Assess your current state.
Use a whiteboard session to
map out your current process
from the job candidates’
perspective. Discuss frankly
what’s working, and what’s
not working. Also look for
opportunities to introduce
technology to solve certain
labor-intensive recruiting
activities (see Assessment,
Video Interviewing and
Sourcing Technology ebooks).
Visit www.kellyocg.com/
Knowledge/The_Tru_Files/
Envision a future state.
Imagine what would improve
if your organization adopted
the new roles of recruiting
outlined here. What
problems would be solved?
What new issues may arise?
Try to imagine the concrete
steps needed to adapt your
current recruiting activities.
Get C-level buy-in.
Changes this profound won’t
take place without senior
leadership on board. Before
proceeding any further,
package up initial findings
and secondary research to
understand whether senior
executives “get it.” Gauge
their level of buy-in, and
how it ties in to future
business imperatives.
To learn more about how the
role of recruiting ties in to
other key changes within your
talent attraction organization,
see Culture Branding ebook
and Candidate Experience
ebook.
Visit www.kellyocg.com/
Knowledge/The_Tru_Files/
1
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CULTURE BRANDING
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ASSESSMENTS
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SOURCING TECHNOLOGY
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13. /13
THE #TRU STORY
I first discovered the Unconference concept when I led a track at #RecruitFest in Toronto in
1999. I was taken aback by the way discussion flowed and how different the format was to a
traditional conference. I led a track all day under a tree and learnt far more than I gave.
Two months later and back in the UK, we ran the first #truLondon at Canary Wharf in November
2009. Today, we’re running dozens of #tru events a year across Europe, North America, Africa
and the Asia-Pacific. Thousands of recruiters, HR leaders and providers come together in an
informal spirit of information sharing and networking.
#tru is based on the BarCamp principle, which means that everybody can be an active
participant instead of listening to speakers and watching presentations all day. The emphasis is
on communication and the free exchange of ideas and experiences where the participants fuel
the conversations.
BILL BOORMAN

14. ADDING LONG-TERM BUSINESS VALUE
Recruitment activity today tends to be reactive, typically driven by the ratio of positions per
recruiter. Moving forward, the new role of the recruiter must consider longer-term objectives.
What are the company’s business goals? How does talent impact them? Recruiters need a
collaborative approach that adds long-term business value by finding and engaging key talent.
For optimal business impact, talent strategy should align directly to company objectives. Find
out what roles are considered key talent in your organization and create a plan to connect with
them now. It’s really about the transition from being a Recruiter to becoming a Talent Advisor.
Companies should start building a network of key people, while using the external and internal
brand to add value. This requires building trust and educating department heads to be more on
the leading edge in their business, using their connections and the recruiters to move the brand
forward. This will require a significant change in mind set, but one that’s well worth the effort.
There is still value in transaction-based recruiters, but if you stay in that mindset, that’s all you’ll
accomplish—and it doesn’t excuse you from thinking long-term. You need to maintain both
perspectives to stay competitive.
MARIA ROSPLOCH
MARIA ROSPLOCH,
Vice President, Global
Solutions Architecture and
Enhanced Services
Maria consults globally with
top performing organizations
to ensure that client talent
needs are clearly developed
and defined, in order to deliver
optimal recruitment process
solutions. With a focus on best
practices and lean processes,
and founded on nearly two
decades of recruitment process
and delivery expertise, Maria is
integral in designing the right
strategic solutions for clients,
and partners with delivery
teams to ensure alignment
with client expectations
and consistently achieved
program goals. Prior to 2002,
Maria held roles in program
management and account
leadership for KellyOCG.
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16. For more thought leadership go to talentproject.com
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE FUTURE OF RECRUITING,
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ABOUT KELLY SERVICES®
Kelly Services, Inc. (NASDAQ: KELYA, KELYB) is a leader in providing workforce solutions. Kelly® offers a
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HIRE WORK, NOT WORKERS
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ASSESSMENTS
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SOURCING TECHNOLOGY
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GAMIFICATION
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VIDEO INTERVIEWING
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NEW ROLE OF THE RECRUITER
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SOCIAL RECRUITING PERSONALIZATION
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