For generations recruiting followed a process that was as much administrative as managerial. When your company had a job opening you either dug out the existing job description or created a new one using the same outline and containing the same types of information like what education, experience and skills you, the employer, required.

Then you posted the job internally, asked for referrals, ran an ad or two, called a third party recruiter if necessary, interviewed, selected the best candidate and extended an offer of employment. Your concerns centered on the elements of cost, time, quality and overall satisfaction.

The last ten years have provided a much more complex problem when it comes to recruiting. In addition to the four basic measurements listed above, you must now be concerned with new recruiting software alternatives, new screening tools, and applicants who are looking at the job market in a much different way.

The last two decades have produced too many college grads with degrees in Liberal Arts, Political Science or Finance and too few with the credentials needed for engineering and scientific careers. Top talent in certain key fields has become scarce and is getter scarcer. Those who have highly sought after skills are well aware of their value in today’s market. The approach to snaring top talent is facing considerable change.

Until these changes are made in a company’s approach to recruiting, jobs that require these skills are taking longer to fill. Identifying potential talent that your company needs is becoming harder and harder.

Add to this the pressure generated by corporate issues such as need for faster time-to-market, smarter workforce utilization and the desire of top management for increased company profitability.

Recruiting is facing a “C-change” and the people who work in recruiting must make that change to overcome the challenges of today’s labor market.

What does this mean to you?

If you want to locate, identify and attract the best possible candidates for your company you need to explore and understand the alternatives available for recruiting like social media and inbound candidate marketing. You will need to learn to “sell” candidates on the reasons why they should consider your company.

You will need a Career Site that lays out the features and benefits of the company as well as of each specific job. Your Career Site needs to present an appealing picture of the company, the reasons why people like working for your company, testimonials from current employees, diversity information and data on alternate career paths within your organization.

To insure that your intake funnel of potential candidates remains vital and that you don’t let a quality person slip through the cracks, you will need to use sophisticated, automated software for collecting and screening applicants This will allow you to concentrate on those who best meet your requirements and will speed your time-to-hire when a need exists.

Candidates must be encouraged to sign-up on your Career Site to receive notification of future job openings as well as news and announcements from your company. Keeping in touch with interested parties like this can result in future hires or referrals of quality personnel from the candidates registered with you.

When you develop a Twitter and Facebook page you can engage users, easily collect demographic information about those users and ultimately turn your Facebook and Twitter pages into effective recruiting tools. You can offer the ability to click from social media to a landing page that allows an applicant to apply on-line for the position. In addition you can determine how many completed your on-line questionnaire, how many were interviewed and how many were hired.

Recruiting is changing faster than it ever has. Whether small or large, every company in competition for a quality workforce is grappling with these changes. Those that meet this challenge head-on will emerge the winners in the competition for the best available talent.