I spoke at the HCI Strategic Talent Acquisition in New York this week on the how the skills of a great recruiter have changed since the year 2000. This was a joint presentation with Bridie Fanning, CHRO of Isis.

We focused on the fact that business and work has become social, the journey we have been on from: user generated content, conversations, collaboration, and communities to a world of collective intelligence about potential employers. I stressed that everything we read, watch, create and comment on is recorded and captured on the internet. This means 'reputation management' is no longer a nice to have, it is imperative. Candidates now, before they even think about applying, check companies out on sites like Glassdoor.

This has translated into an ever shifting set of recruiting skills.  Instead of the database of candidates that search firms used to brag about, recruiters in 2011 need to focus on connections and their ability to make them.  They need to be able to provide high-touch candidate experiences rather than just acting as middle-man for the candidate and hiring manager.

Bridie described how, because Isis is moving so fast and growing so fast, they are hiring for jobs that don’t exist in the marketplace and their future employees will be using technology they haven’t built yet.  “A big part of our beliefs was to value the individual and operate with simplicity and speed” said Bridie.  “Our value proposition is: come work for us, work really hard, and if you decide not to stay you will still have a great value in the marketplace because of your experience.”