Evolution of Recruitment – The People
Industry
Recruitment is a process of attracting, selecting
and placing the right candidate for the right job at the given time and
economy. It is highly admiring that a process has been successfully transforming
for several decades and will continue to do so.
While researching about recruitment for more than a decade, I discovered
that there is strong belief about recruitment being existent since the day
people formed/gathered in groups to perform any task – you may date this back
to the stone-age or time of emperors or the industrial revolutions or pre-post
World Wars to today! I see this as an evolution of task to a process and to an
industry. May be a Transformation!
#respect #admire
The Old-age
(Days of Emperors): when a baby was
born, he/she was believed to be the soldier and was taught the arts of war to
join the Army. This was said to be ‘Self Recruitment’. Later, there were
protests against the emperors for farms/fields and for the right to sell the
goods directly to the public for a better price. As they progressed,
entrepreneurs started recruiting the labor. Is this an assumption or just a belief
that recruitment is old as saga of kingdoms? May be! BTW, the world's first
empire was formed about 2250 B.C.
Industrial Revolutions (1760>1840): With the rapid increase of industries across nations was
the need for more manpower. But, the working conditions were uncertain
like - child labor, less wages, poor-living conditions and long working hours. Workers
started forming unions to protest against this which led to first & second
revolutions resulting in urbanization, decreased child labor, better wage and
benefits. This encouraged people to migrate to urban cities. Agencies played a
major role planning and recruiting the manpower. This had led many
small & mid-sized agencies to scale-up and look at recruitment as the
future. Walk-ins, references and standing on the roads advertizing their skills
written on boards were the primary job searching avenues; Agencies advertised
jobs through bulletin boards, newspapers, announcements
& flyers in public places, theaters, town halls, etc,. 
Pre & post World Wars –
WWI/WWII (1914>1945>later): As the army was
in the battle, many positions were open. Companies and the government approached
the agencies to recruit manpower. Agencies began to advertise for members of
society who were not called into military service. Once the war ended, the agencies remained
with the purpose of finding the returning war veterans (with their new skills)
a job. Distributing the CV/resume (self-written, hire
type-writers, take the help of agencies) was the new job searching avenue
during this time. Agencies had ownership of candidates CVs’ written by
them.
The management/storage of information was quite challenging
as the agencies needed to store files and archives of masses of CVs, This
problem was solved in 1983 (launch of MS Word) and with the rise of internet
and technology between late 1980s and early 1990s.
Birth of Public agencies: First proposal to establish a public agency ("Office of
Addresses and Encounters") was in 1650 by Henry Robinson which was
rejected by The British Parliament.
Since the beginning of the 20th
century, every developed country has created a public recruitment agency as a
way to combat unemployment and help people find work.
In the UK (also ruling the EMEAI), the first agency began in London, through the Labour
Bureau (London) Act 1902; amended in 1909 as Labour
Exchanges Act 1909. In the USA,
The initial legislation was Wagner-Peyser
Act of 1933
which was amended as Workforce
Investment Act of 1998.
Birth of Private/for-profit
agencies: The first private recruitment agency ‘Engineering Agency’
in the USA was formed by ‘Fred Winslow’ in 1893. It later became part of
General Employment Enterprises who also owned Businessmen's Clearing House
(est. 1902). In 1906, Katharine Felton
had started a recruitment agency as a response to the problems brought on by
the San Francisco earthquake and fire.
Regulation of the Recruitment Agencies: In 1919, International Labour
Organization of US recommended for the abolition of fee-charging agencies. After 14 years of discussions by the
government and agency unions about this convention a bill was passed in 1933 that
resulted in abolition of for-profit agencies if the agencies were not licensed
and a fee scale was not agreed in advance. In most countries, agencies are
regulated. Like, UK - Recruitment agencies Act 1973; Germany - Employee Hiring
Law of 1972, etc. By 1970s along with the booming economy, there was a shift in
focus. Recruiters began to work for the client as an increasing amount of
corporate and expanding businesses began to outsource their hiring needs to recruitment
agencies.
The Internet
age > Today: Though Internet/www
was launched in 1982, Commercial Internet service providers (ISPs) began to
emerge in the late 1980s and early 1990s; fully commercialized in the U.S. by
1995. With the emerging technology/ internet, was the birth of e-recruitment. Recruiters started using
web based Applicant Tracking Systems, databases, jobs, advertisements. The
first job portal was launched in 1994 by Monster followed by Netstart which is
now CareerBuilder. Today, we have numerous job portals and ATSs’ available. A
lot of them.
In 2000s, Web 1.0 and its sequel Web 2.0 have
highly influenced recruitment industry by letting recruiters leverage Social Media. The concept of
"head-hunting" became ever popular while Mobile based recruitment was
popping in the market. With several sources available and the need for niche
talent, recruitment/sourcing has transformed from being a task to a Research
Function. Agencies started forming exclusive sourcing teams and research
functions. Today,
web based self-branding has become a necessity that most of the applicants,
recruiters and agencies have online presence. Be it LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter,
Google+, wordpress, etc. This is an ever-ending list. Few recruiters/candidates
own blogs, websites, online portfolios/resumes making web/internet ‘One World
Database’ and the trend of ‘Cloud Sourcing’. This new technique includes
sourcing the resumes/e-profiles of applicants from web (including but not
limited to) search engines, social/professional portals, blogs, e-directories,
etc – to keep it short, everywhere!
Recruitment has been one of the ancient yet prominent
industries. Throughout this evolution,
one aspect has remained the same – ‘Change is the trend’. We will see continued
transformation in future as well, especially in methodical and technical
approach of recruiters. Data analysis/intelligence is expected to be a critical
area of focus for the recruiters/agencies. Agencies, recruiters,
candidates/applicants have high visibility in the internet world. So, everyone should
be unique & innovative to offer a competitive-edge. In addition to your processes,
tools, methodologies – your willingness to change for better will help secure
the position in the competition.
Recruitment is ever-changing, ever-challenging and
ever-transforming industry.
Happy Recruiting!
--
Satya Reddy | Recruitment Evangelist & Speaker
|
References:
A decade+ experience as a recruitment consultant / Wikipedia / Google.
Disclaimer:
All content is to express my individual opinions for informational purposes
only and will not be liable for any errors or omissions in this information nor
for the availability of this information.
