CareerXroads’ (CXR) 8th Annual Source of Hire (SOH) study was published in Feb, 2009, which provided a detailed description about how one group of corporations fills their open positions (in the US/North America). Or, more accurately, how corporate staffing functions measure and report sources of hires for the openings they fill. Even the data were collected only for US/North America, but I believe it's also a strong reference for China.
Some key findings include:
1. Internal transfer and promotions has the significant increase in the proportion of internal to external fills in 2008 (38.8%) versus 2007(28%) due to the deteriorating economic climate during 2008.
2. Referrals (employee, alumni, vendor, etc.) make up 27.3% of all external hires and is arguably the number one external source. (Employee referrals make up most of this category but Alumni referrals are growing.)
3. Hires attributed to Job Boards (not including the company site) represent 12.3% of external hires. The trend predicts it will diminish in the future.
4. Company web site is regarded as a destination not a source.
People who participated this survey also offererd insight into their 2009 staffing plans and extent of their comments, which highlighted the their strategic focus on five areas:
1. Improve Direct Sourcing, Social Network Connections and SEM
- Increased use of web 2.0 tools in staffing is currently high on the minds of staffing leaders as a goal in 2009.
2. Reduce Agency, Job Board and Print
- The squeeze is on. The state of the economy is a critical factor to encouraging alternatives to agencies, reducing job board contracts – primarily those with the largest career sites, and essentially eliminating remaining expensive print display ads.
3. Increase Referrals
- The number of firms who are filling more than 50% of their hires from referral sources has increased dramatically
4. Track and Train
- A surprising number of firms recognize the importance of committing to agreed upon protocols that help standardize recruiter behavior. We’re seeing a new emphasis on training that goes beyond hunter/farmer tactics and asks recruiters to delve deeper into the ecology of forests and plains and the quality of hires to be found there.
5. Improve The Company Career-site Pages
- One constant in every “channel” guiding a prospect from his or her point of origin to the application form and beyond is a corporation’s approach to their web site’s staffing pages. That these are increasingly important, literally the sole of the recruiting process, is not in doubt but arguably not a first source.
For more details, you can log on CareerXroads to download the report.
