The Outstanding Public Debt as of 10-14-2010 is:  $13,640,075,534,000 and counting!

The estimated population of the United States is 309,237,361, so each citizen’s share of this debt is $44,108.76. The National Debt has continued to increase an average of $4.19 billion per day since September 28, 2007!. (Source: http://www.truthinaccounting.org)

So what does all this have to do with the broken recruitment process? Well, the U.S. Government is providing tax breaks and providing financial assistance in hiring people, but the money recruiters and companies are receiving from the government is spent on supporting the poor system.  If we fix this broken system, we may be able to participate in stopping the growth of our national debt. Let’s break down the recruitment process.

There are two options companies use to recruit employees using internal resources:

-       Option A: Source, hire and on-board internally

-       Option B: Contract external vendors to assist in the hiring process.

A major difference between the two options is that external vendors may not be able to perform the entire process, specifically the interviewing and on-boarding components.  This still leaves 40% or more of the job for the hiring organization to complete.  In addition, both options also have a laundry list of advantages and disadvantages, but we will save that discussion for another post.

Option A requires a lot of people, time and money.  Moreover, the skills required to perform all the functions, specifically the ‘Sourcing’ and ‘Qualifying’ are complex and time consuming.

So when companies need to hire quickly, they attempt to leverage Option B. This option can be also be a costly alternative.  Hiring companies still have to perform their part of the qualifying, interviewing and on-boarding process. At the same time, external vendors are always worried about the risk of spinning their wheels chasing job requirements that are not clearly defined while to competing with many other resume chasers. On top of it all, external vendors don’t get paid until the hiring is complete and may need to wait for 30, 60, or even 90 additional days for the invoices to be paid.

This seems to be a broken business system.  Who wants to work for free? Who wants to pay when no service is delivered? Does it sound familiar? Can we fix the broken system?

Absolutely! We can fix this broken system if employers are willing to change their behavior and share the financial risk and stop wasting the time of everyone by engaging multiple vendors (resume chasers) to do the free sourcing. The vendors need to commit to the success of the employers and job seekers, by being transparent.

As we all know, companies invest huge sums of money hiring employees and they pay lot of money to vendors to source resumes and seek help in recruiting. We’re wasting a lot of time and money due to inefficient process, poor transparency and inadequate internal skills.

Let us stop playing the game of ‘lie, steal, hide and borrow’’ like the U.S. Government and start focusing on quality and cost effective hiring processes. We ‘recruiters’ should be socially and morally responsible to fixing this problem by working with clients to make the process transparent. Let’s improve the efficiency by introducing new technology and innovation. On the contrary, the clients should stop throwing requirements at every recruiter available without understanding the consequences. Together we reduce the productivity loss and in-turn we directly contribute to our national debt reduction.

Related posts:

1. Succeeding at Global Recruitment
2. Credit Reports and the Hiring Process
3. SOWs: Get More from your VMS (Part 1)
4. I’m Sorry, But Today’s Job Boards are Broken
5. Managing Workforce Risk – Part I