We have all heard the predictions that by the year 2010, there will be more than 10 million more jobs in the country than people to fill them. We are already seeing shortages of qualified applicants in the healthcare, civil engineering and construction industries.

The traditional recruitment processes of placing an ad in the paper or on an internet job board has never been a good way to recruit high quality talent. Over 95% of the people who respond to such ads are not even remotely qualified for the position. Finding good candidates through this method is akin to panning for gold. You must keep rummaging through the rocks and fools gold to get to the real thing. This is (and always has been) an expensive process for the business owner. Couple this with the fact that fewer qualified people are responding to ads, and the conclusion is that the traditional recruitment process is broken beyond repair. In actuality, the recruitment process in most companies has always been broken, but the pipeline that was continually filled with candidates fooled businesses into believing that it worked.

Technology is also changing the way potential employees search for jobs. More and more people are posting their resumes on the major job boards and waiting for employers to find them. Recruitment now involves finding the talent and convincing them to join your firm. Recruitment has become a strategic initiative and not just something that has to be done.

Another shift in the workforce affecting availability of qualified candidates is the continued growth of the small business sector. Small businesses account for more than two-thirds of the new jobs created in the country and the small businesses are much more flexible than larger corporations. With the shift comes opportunity.

There are a number of other changes occurring in the marketplace that will make the small business market more attractive to Recruitment Process Outsourcing. Small business owners and managers do not have the time or the talent to ask the right questions and find the right people. Bryan Cooksey, President of McCall Service, a pest control company headquartered in Jacksonville, FL was recently quoted in the Jacksonville Business Journal on why he started using an HR firm to do his recruitment for him, “The location managers are responsible for hiring and firing. But we were growing so fast that we did not have the time to do it properly. The people who run the day-to-day operation were more concerned with finding a warm body for the spot than finding the right person.”


Many small businesses have turned to Professional Employer Organizations (PEO’s) as a solution to their HR needs. However, the jury is still out on whether PEO’s are the panacea to the small business market that they purported to be a few years ago. There are about 700 PEO’s in the country. Many small businesses are finding the relationship with a PEO prohibitively expensive as most are charging between $1,000 and $1,500 per employee per year. Yet, few PEO’s offer recruitment services that are included in the base fees.

What small businesses need from their Recruitment Process Outsource providers:

• A quick turnaround. Small businesses cannot wait the traditional 60 to 90 days to have a person hired. They need someone to fill the role within 30 days. The negative operational impact of one opening for an extended period of time on a small company can be significant.

• A reasonable pricing structure. The traditional charges of 20% to 30% of the first year’s earnings of the hired candidate are not an option for most small businesses as they are prohibitively expensive. If the old way of recruitment doesn’t work, neither does the traditional pricing structures. The technological advances of the internet make it easier to find and screen qualified candidates quickly. These savings should be passed on the client. This may hurt your margins, but revenue and profit dollars may increase substantially.

• A real business partner. The recruitment process outsourcing firm must have a strong knowledge of the business goals and culture of their client. The business owners want to work with someone who understands their business and works hard to get the right people in place to move their business forward.

• Personal attention. Continuous follow-up via e-mail, telephone conversations and personal meetings are critical to developing and enhancing the level of trust with business owners.

Small business has always been the lifeblood of the economy. The market is huge as small businesses make up 90% of the employers and two-thirds of the people employed in the country. With the baby-boomers dropping out of the job market through retirement and entrepreneurship, recruitment has become a much higher priority. There are less people to fill the positions vacated by the exiting baby-boomers and those who start their own businesses will also need people.

Recruitment process outsourcing is here and will be a much needed service for the foreseeable future. Get on the bus now before it leaves you behind.