Recruiter Quote: "Someone still has to sort through the hundreds of resumes"

We at TalentSpring often hear quotes from recruiters about the challenges in sourcing.  I will start posting these as I encounter them because they identify with our passions for advancing the recruiting and source industry.

I read the quote below after reading a post on Cheezhead today.

Former Head Hunter's Perspective     19-Feb-08 02:41 pm    

"I used to work in agency recruiting and when Monster first came out, the owner of our firm was terrified that Monster was going to put us out of business. In the end, Monster probably syphoned off about 10-15% a year in revenue as companies filled positions via running ads on Monster, Career Builder, etc. So why wasn't Monster able to destroy the agency recruiting field? A couple of reasons. Someone still has to sort through the hundreds if not thousands of resumes received after an ad is run. A lot of HR departments simply threw up their hands and went back to paying 20-30% of the employees first year salary to a search firm. They did not have the time to weed out the resumes. Secondly, higher level employees never became comfortable using the boards for posting their resumes, and did not respond to job ads on the boards in any meaningful way. In the end, Monster (and others - especially Dice) have hurt agency recruitment revenue and will continue to do so, but until Monster's technology changes, agency recruiters will still be needed. Meaning - they must develop the means to narrow down the resume flow based on an employer's set of criteria and deliver the five best resumes for an opening. This could be a "premium" or "elite" service and would still be much cheaper than the thousands of dollars companies are paying head hunters. Perhaps this is where Google, as an acquirer, could develop the necessary technology. Secondly, Monster should develop an "executive" level set of services for upper management job seekers. A upper level professional expects more by way of service than an entry level sales rep. It seems to me that Monster is just scratching the surface and the next evolution of the company can really capture revenue from the recruiting firms. Keep in mind that recruiting firms generate BILLIONS in revenue every year. The key is to convince and demonstrate to internal HR recruiting departments that Monster can make their work day more efficient at a significantly lower cost. I hope that Monster is working on this as we speak, or talking to an acquirer with the technology to take the company to the next level."

Original URL: http://messages.finance.yahoo.com/Stocks_%28A_to_Z%29/...

-Bryan