Warning: Severe Weather Alert

Today’s local forecast: Rising attrition this morning, followed by rejected offers this afternoon.  Tomorrow, increased chance of hiring manager dissatisfaction, followed by possible outsourcing. Long-term forecast: Hot market with severe competition spreading globally.

Tuesday’s gathering of 28 staffing “meteorologists” at the Silicon Valley Talent 10 Regional Staffing Thought Leaders Conference described “The Perfect Storm” above.  Add Kevin Wheeler’s data on global labor force trends and you might feel like heading for the basement.

Cisco, Adobe, Siebel, Kaiser and 15 other “players” shared their challenges and strategies.  Last year they were saying things like:

• “Staffing has almost no budget now.  It’s all been decentralized to business groups.   They spend it sporadically.”
• “We need to overcome fragmentation of staffing.”
• “I’m being asked to influence global staffing without additional resources.”
• “Self-service model…removing recruiter from low value processes”
• “We’re worried about being outsourced.”

This year, the comments had a different tone:

• “We are adding dedicated sourcers and building a research department.”
• “Attrition, rejected offers and multiple offers are on the rise.  Job titles are becoming big issue.”
• “We are using agencies because we have to, but the quality from them is getting worse.”
• “I’m trying to decide what pieces of staffing make sense to outsource.”

Jeff Hunter's scenario was right on about running your staffing org like an outsourced RPO. Hiring is heating up and staffing directors who want to stay employed better be building and nurture talent communities now.  Waiting until you feel the storm will be too late.    How’s the weather in your neck of the woods??