Talent Search Partners, Inc.

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The World Needs External Recruitment

Artificial Intelligence, Employer Insight, Human Resources, Inspiration, Leadership, Recruitment /

Demand is soaring for talent globally, but enrolment in recruitment best practices is declining, and younger people are deciding not to pursue a career in the sector. How can the industry do a better job of attracting & retaining talent and changing negative perceptions? The disconnect is alarming – 1 in every 4 recruiters will leave the industry after their first year, and demand for competent professionals has reached an all time high. Add to this a persistent talent shortage across key sectors, and I would definitely report to Houston that we have a problem. Current & Future Challenges Within engineering alone, we are seeing a rise in enrolment into areas like Artificial Intelligence, Renewable Energy, and Biomedical/Healthcare. Understandable given the surges we’ve witnessed in digital transformation, concerns about climate change, and a population that continues to age coupled with the integration of technology. Recruitment has never been more necessary for the challenges we face as a society, and there is strong correlation between (good) recruitment and a sustainable economy that can compete globally. The priority remains to connect good people with good companies, and this is where recruitment can be a difference maker. An average position vacancy can take anywhere from 3 to 6 weeks to fill, but we’ve seen this number increase over recent years with roles being left open for upwards of a year. Factors such as applicant volume, internal approvals, poor screening practices, and an inability to decide on the part of hiring executives have extended this process to the frustration of job seekers. This talent conundrum is being felt globally by decision makers who are facing the reality of not being able to deliver on production targets and strategic objectives. It has never been more complex to hire and retain talent over recent years, and recruitment must step up to alleviate the challenges that organizations are facing and will encounter in the future. Our ability to compete as a nation is directly tied to how we groom, stimulate, place, and retain our best and brightest, and this starts at the ground floor level – a better trained and more competent fleet of recruitment professionals who understand current market pressures, can connect with people in meaningful ways, and lead them into favourable situations. Future Recruitment Professionals The lack of appeal to younger professionals is due in part to misconceptions around recruitment. A train of thought that positions recruitment as a sleezy and ubiquitous career choice with no real guardrails to protect the professions integrity. Recruitment is not an aspirational industry for young people to join. “When I grow up, I want to be a recruiter,” does not exist in most households since there are hardly any good examples for our young people to emulate. You sort of stumble into the sector and make it work. If you catch on quickly, you can experience real success. If not, then it’s unlikely that you’ll remain in the industry beyond a year. This is supported by the fact that there is no direct pathway into the field through formal education or training. Anyone can be a recruiter – great for someone at a career intersection or mid-life crisis, but detrimental to the credibility of the industry. Furthermore, the focus on hitting quotas and punishment rather than support & rehabilitation for underperformers have increased the revolving door or forced recruiters to engage in short-sighted, unethical behaviour. Even though organizations continue to rely on “recruitment practices” to meet their targets, very few have the internal resources & expertise to enter the marketplace, engage in conversations with the top percentile of talent, & bring them over the finish line. The distance between that hiring requisition and filling the position is vast, and there is a misunderstanding of where recruiters actually add value and how they work. The recruitment industry has to do a better job of demonstrating its legitimacy to its marketplace and to future professionals. Void of a better marketing campaign with appeal beyond just earning potential, recruitment will continue to face attraction & retention problems within its own ranks, and those problems will undoubtedly be transferred to job seekers and hiring executives. Rebranding as a Mechanism of Change Recruitment needs to be rebranded to the marketplace, but this starts with making impactful changes internally. This starts with improving our leaders, more formal training that builds character and resilience, compassion during periods of drought, and incentives that actually reward performance. Recruiters will continue to be the drivers of growth for our economy, but they must reposition themselves as an essential service in the marketplace by first changing their own self perception. You cannot allow others to dictate how you work and what you work for. Any rebranding campaign that does not emphasize the human experience & time savings will not gain traction in the market. Automate as much as possible, but the human connection can only come from a human. This cannot be replaced, nor mimicked.

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99% Of You Are Prompting That Recruiter Wrong

Artificial Intelligence, Leadership, Recruitment /

I learned today that most people don’t know how to properly prompt their AI – 99% to be exact. Essentially, AI is only as productive as the quality of the prompts it receives from the user… Interesting… We dictate to AI the role we’d like it to play, what we’d like done, how we’d like it done, and you can even provide context/background to increase accuracy… When I heard this today, I immediately thought of the recruitment profession. Specifically, the degree of frustration that many are feeling towards recruiters… The bad recruiters should be held accountable! They’re not only leaving a trail of casualties, but they’re compromising the integrity of what we do as recruiters. Perhaps guardrails need to be imposed around the profession to limit the entrance of any and everyone… Unlikely to happen realistically… …but what if those who have been engaged by a recruiter or wish to engage themselves could manipulate the interaction to some degree in the same manner we would with AI? What if there was a way to prompt that recruiter to ensure optimal results? If we can prompt a machine, then certainly we can prompt a human! Of course there are nuances that we’d need to consider, but in theory, what I’m proposing is fundamental… Too many of us take whatever a recruiter says without questioning them or their legitimacy. They request, we provide. They ask, we answer. They share, we accept as the truth. They no-show, we complain. Rinse and repeat. Let’s break down this recruiter prompt theory, and leave your comments below if you agree or disagree with this post… If effectively prompting AI results in desired outcomes and better experiences, and the act of prompting is merely telling the machine what you want from it in order to keep engaging with it, then perhaps my thesis is not entirely senseless… So, how would one prompt a recruiter to improve the chances of a successful outcome, which would increase the odds of usage again in the future? The answer lies in the quality of the communication. Whenever I’m contacted by a job seeker who has recently entered the marketplace, I can quickly glean the caliber of that professional by their initial outreach, which is generally an introduction outlining what they desire from their next opportunity. This usually takes the form of title/seniority, location preferences, headcount responsibilities if a leader, remote/hybrid, and of course, money – i.e., what they desire to earn… All good variables to consider when you’re exploring a career move/change (I can also tell if that message has been sent to 100 different recruiters. Some even forget to bcc:)… The average recruiter will receive this sort of message and do 2 things with it: What if there was a better way to engage that recruiter, increase your chances of being considered for a real opportunity, go through real meetings with their client, actually receive feedback after every interaction, receive a good offer, and get hired? What if the variable that could lead to the above happening more often than not rested in the quality of the prompting? Let’s explore an example of an effective prompt scenario with a recruiter you’ve never worked with: Hi Shawn, My name is John Smith. Your LinkedIn profile indicates that you’re in the recruitment space and have been in the industry for 10 years now. It wasn’t clear from current and past roles the industries you serve, but a quick look at your corporate site disclosed that your company has client’s in the pharmaceutical, nuclear, and manufacturing sectors. I also noticed through some of your recommendations that some senior professionals within engineering have endorsed your work, suggesting that you’re quite connected in my field of expertise. I’m a licensed professional engineer within Ontario, and I’ve spent the last 20 years helping manufacturers within the defence space deliver highly engineered and technologically advanced armoured vehicles to their customers. I was recently featured in the attached article for my work on a new autonomous vehicle, slated to hit the market in Q1 2026. Having completed this project, I am now looking for a new challenge, and I’m selectively reaching out to professionals in your area who can support me on this journey. My last 2 projects were delivered underbudget and earlier than what we quoted to our customer, and I was at the forefront of all design activities. There was a team of 10 people under my coaching, 2 of which went on to receive promotions within the company, and a 3rd being groomed for leadership as we speak. Before we discuss any further, I’d like to know if I represent the type of professional you typically work with and have had success placing into meaningful positions? Secondly, if I am, I’d like to know more about you and your practices and how you typically go to market with someone of my caliber. I’ll only provide a resume after we’ve established this as a mutually beneficial relationship, and you actually have clients with goals that I can help accomplish. I’d also like to express that since I am presently employed, I expect utmost confidentiality. If this makes sense, please reach out via mobile or email, both listed below. Thanks, Shawn. John It’s lengthy, but let’s dissect this… Firstly, you quickly establish credibility with someone you don’t know when your outreach demonstrates that you actually did your research. John visited Shawn’s profile, actually read it, and cross-referenced with the company site for specific details not mentioned on LinkedIn. Secondly, his introduction focused on tangible accomplishments, not a wish list. John provided details into his work, referenced a link to support his claims, and offered good information into how the company and the team benefited from his presence. Lastly, he protected the integrity of his outreach by withholding any further documentation or information, (i.e., resume) until he felt comfortable that Shawn was interested in working with him and could in fact represent his candidacy in the marketplace.

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A Technological Approach To Ghosting Candidates

Artificial Intelligence, Inspiration, Leadership, Recruitment /

There’s no doubt that AI and Recruitment will be married for the foreseeable future. If leveraged correctly and with balance, it will only serve to optimize the service and address more needs. While the benefits are clear and lucrative, I worry about placing an AI band-aid over a broken system and mindset. Let’s dive deeper… ​Ghosting for instance has been commonly associated with recruitment for years now, and while I don’t know when it became a thing, ghosting has become a predictable outcome when dealing with recruiters. What is Ghosting? In my own words, it is the complete disregard of basic human decency – the prioritization of profit over ethics. A practical example of ghosting is calling a candidate about a position that you’ve received from a client, qualifying them, submitting their resume, coordinating the interview(s), and not getting back to them with the results. Most are familiar with this… There are an assortment of other questionable practices that recruiters engage in that has created a negative impression of the industry… Ghosting is really a mirror of deeper issues within our own ranks. Poor leaders have produced poor recruiters. The pressure of meeting quotas has removed quality and integrity from the equation… Fast forward to 2023 – cue the rise of AI… Like any prior great discovery or invention, AI serves to enhance the human experience or expose our flaws… Without dealing with the core issues in recruitment, I worry that we will only make negative experiences more prevalent… Automating your service does not address the trust and credibility concerns that decision makers and candidates have about recruitment… Your tech stack might be great, but your people lack resilience and character to weather the turbulence that is coming their way… We are attempting to cover up our “people problems” with automation, and that’s a recipe for disaster… Until we address the elephant in the room, I’m afraid that AI/technology will never complement the human experience in the way it was designed to… You’re simply automating ghosting. Personal story: ​Just yesterday, I had a candidate reject an offer from my customer. I prefaced the formal offer with a pre-acceptance letter outlining the terms of the offer as a way of addressing any concerns beforehand; normal practice for me. I was confident that it would come back signed. The following day, the candidate called me to say that his Wife had concerns that could not be overcome with more money. Completely understandable; take care of home. I asked whether he had discussed the opportunity with her during the process. He said yes, and her remarks were: “you get calls like this all the time, and they never go anywhere.” In other words, recruiters call you all the time and never follow through so I thought this was one of those cases about to repeat itself. Deal lost because of a failure to take the outreach seriously. Let’s get back to providing a memorable experience to everyone involved. AI is the cherry on top!

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