Today we continue the countdown to TruLondon 6. Our first guest blog is from Steve Ward, founder of Cloud Nine Recruitment and a keen supporter and track leader at Tru events for many years. Check out our recent blog in which we featured a discussion from the last event that involved Steve.

At TruLondon6 he will be coordinating a series of tracks around the future of recruitment agencies from the angle of innovative and futuristic methodology. They will take place on Tuesday 22nd October between 10.00 and 13.00. These tracks will no doubt spark some interesting discussions and will include contributions from a number of social recruiters.

Here Steve looks at why social networking technologies were just made for the recruitment industry…

“I always recall the story, how Social Media saved my Recruitment career! I was sick of being an identi-fit recruiter, doing the same as everyone else. So, I went it alone. Then I was sick of competing against short-cutters, cowboys, cheap deal-makers and speed-recruitment merchants, so I started applying for jobs outside the industry. The recession was deep, and I felt recruitment was losing its mojo, for me and for clients out there. I couldn’t be a part of it.

Then 3 years ago, I accidentally placed a couple of roles in Social Media – and started to find out what relevance it had to business and WHY I was placing roles in a zone that for me was a place for mindless banter, random conversation and picture sharing.
Who knew then, that mindless banter, random conversation and picture sharing was to become a fundamental basis for the next 3 years of my recruitment career??!!

When I blogged for Jobsite prior to TruLondon 5 earlier this year I focused on the introduction and relevance of social media to agency recruitment – largely around the emphasis of perception. This time, the clutch of tracks I will be co-ordinating represent my take on the direction of the `Social Agency` format, centred around smart social recruiting, social tactics and market integration; and I want to introduce those subjects. I believe we should be past the `This is why you should use Social Media` message – we need to talking about `Can you integrate Social Media communications?`, `How you use Social Media communications` and `How Social Media can work for you`. So here’s the agenda:

The Social Agency – what is the fabric of a Social Agency? What does this actually mean? I’ve been running this track for over 2 years now, and it needs evolving. So, good-bye to ‘why recruitment agencies should use social media’ and hello to looking at the fabric of a recruitment agency as a Social Business. This represents a change in direction from recruitment agency practice as we know it, and our infrastructure has to reflect this sea change.

Community Management – it’s worth looking at how Talent management within our sectors is important to the modern day business. How you build a talent community or pool, monitor them, cajole them, and keep them focused on your agency. A recruitment agency CAN be the fulcrum of great topical content, ideas and innovation within an industry/geography, etc. Social Media is merely part of that; what else can we do?

Reputation Marketing – Well it’s always been about a good reputation hasn’t it? – OR – Does anyone care about this anymore? I see too much of the latter. Results over Image. Well, I think reputation is key, but so is having an understanding of your influence, your impact in your market, and how you recognise and engage with the influential people in your market place. All of this has a massive bearing on the perception and credibility of your agency.

Is The Recruitment Agency Dying – Note I say “Dying”… not “Dead”. Where is it all going? RPO, Social Media, Inhouse Talent Acquisition Management, Cheap Online Options, Resourcing Labs, Linkedin, etc, are having a direct impact on recruitment agency success levels. Is it time for the agency model to keel over and die, or is there a way out? What is the personality of a surviving recruitment agency? Where is our value now?

I think this could be an absolutely fascinating discussion from all sides of the recruitment spectrum, and probably need not be pitched purely at recruitment agencies.

In order to survive, we first need to know how to die. Much of the discussions here will be about tooling up the kit-bag for survival in a changing landscape. Recruitment needs a massive personality makeshift, and only the smartest and most relevant, will survive.

In my eyes, the smartest recruiters will be on the pulse of social change and technology – in the areas where people move and shake. We have to retain relevancy, and be ahead of the shift in recruitment dynamics, and the intelligence of our clients. Social Media has not only provided a playing field for that but it has also provided us with the tools to make recruitment agency service truly special and rewarding again.

Social Media isn’t an option for recruitment agencies anymore; it’s a given. It was MEANT for the recruitment agency sector, because the centre-piece of it all is…people! We happen to have a lot to do with people. Miss that, and we may miss out altogether.”

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