How does a company recruit the best talent for a job? Matthew Jeffery, Head of Talent Acquisition at Autodesk in an article from 2011, says, traditionally there been two stages to spotting real talent.

The Process of Recruitment

Recruitment process 1 was during the pre-digital days when a company advertised in mainstream media, waited for candidates to apply, short-listed them, put them through an interview and picked their ideal candidate. Recruitment process 2 was equally bureaucratic, but the difference was that candidates started applying digitally with job-sites through online resumes.

Redundancy

Jeffery says that Recruitment of talent in the first two formats is now redundant. He says a new way of talent resourcing has caught up to the advantage of the ones creating opportunity and those who use the chance to enhance their skills. Matthew Jeffery calls this new phase of talent scouting Recruitment 3.0, through the effective use of social media.

The Difference?

The primary difference is to segregate job-seekers as against talent pooling. Job-seekers may be qualified, technically-equipped and to a greater or lesser degree experienced in a given category. These candidates would only be 10{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of those applying for a role in any given sector. 90{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of the candidates are either unreached or unaware of the openings.

Potential Talent

Jeffery terms the 90{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} potentially talented but non-active as a segment. The talent potential could have skill-sets far more varied and superior to the usual job-seekers who have got used to the grind.

The way to woo a potential talent would be by defining a candidate as a volunteer to an electoral process. Choice thereby clearly emphasised as a social process where everyone is, hypothetically, talented.

Too Good to be True?

Although this might sound too good to be true, there are at least two sound reasons why Recruitment 3.0 could be the way forward.

The digitisation phase of the first generation has come to an end. Data mobilisation of the old industrial set-up has transformed manufacturing as a sector and as an economic entity.

Shift in Priorities

The old macro-system held through by hierarchy is soon to be dismantled. Digital processing of data has given way to the manufacturing of digitally integrated systems such as Internet of Things (IoT). Traditional capital has given way to impact investment scenarios shifting the way businesses operate at the human scale.

Skilled Choice

The versatile move has scaled up the definition of the job as a skilled choice rather than a mere livelihood. Livelihood itself is increasingly being viewed as a culmination of latent potential rather than as the blue-collar sector of the old industrial system.

This horizontal expansion of business convergence on a global scale makes Recruitment 3.0 as a proposition of high social capital.

Changing Realities

The shift in education as skill enhancement is another important reason why 3.0 holds more than casual water. Honing of specific skills is both a universal value-addition as well as a culture-specific symbol of talent accumulation. This potential was hitherto watered down by academic degrees that prepared nobody to the changing realities of the market.

Slow Change

But as Matthew Jeffrey himself says, employers as a group have barely awoken to infuse an “emotionally-engaged idea of transparent talent resourcing”. There are very few indicators for a breakthrough in creating an employment brand as against the building of corporate brand value.  

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