Sources of Hire (2008):
Why You Should Care About This Now
Current Data, Trends, Opportuni2es and Challenges for 2009
8th Annual Sources of Hire Study released Feb 2009
http://www.careerxroads.com/news/articles.asp
Gerry Crispin, sphr & Mark Mehler
Founders & Principals, CareerXroads
www. CareerXroads.com,
mmc@careerxroads.com
732-821-6652

During 4 weeks each January 2009
We ask 200 staffing
200
leaders for SOH data
20-50 firms respond 45
each with 5000 to 100,000
1,546,497
North American employees
openings filled 309,600
by 1,000-3,000 1,863
Recruiters and Sourcers

Additional Respondent Demographics
Widely dispersed [US and Canada]. No Industry dominates
Roughly 60/40 Exempt vs Non-exempt
40% outsource some part of their staffing. No one outsources All of it.
10% of the workforce is “contingent”. Recruiting does not track it.
23.9% maintain a Corporate sponsored Facebook page
56.5% block Facebook etc. for some or all of their employees
Surveyed Companies hired 22% fewer employees in 2008 than 2007
Surveyed Companies expect to hire 16% fewer employees in 2009

External
Internal
2003
2004
2005
2008 2006
2007
39%
36%
38%
34% 32%
28%

Breakdown of External Sources of Hire (2008)
Job Boards

Year-to-Year Comparison of External Sources of Hire
2007 2005
2006
2008
Referrals
26.6%
27.3%
28.2% 27.1%
Corporate Web Pages
20.1% 20.7
14.0%
12.2
Job Boards
12.3% 12.3
11.7%
12.6
All Other
10.1% 7.0%
12.5%
10.5%
Direct Sourcing
7.8% 6.4%
9.4%
7.4%
College
3.6% 3.8%
3.8% 5.6%
Print
3.4% 6.9%
4.6% 4.6%
Search Engine Marketing
3.3% 2.0%
1.2% N/A
Career Fairs & Open Houses
3.2% 2.7%
2.3%
3.2
Temp-to-hire
3.1% 2.3%
3.0% 3.2
Agency (TPRs)
2.7% 3.3% 4.8% 5.2%
Rehires
2.4% 4.8% 5.2% N/A
Walk-ins
0.8% 4.2%
0.8% 0.5%

Referrals = 27.3%
31% of s
urvey res
pondents
1 - 4 referrals = 1 hire
31%
Question: How many Referrals does it take to make just 1 hire?
Answer: On average…11.2

Job Boards = 12.3%
Linkedin (6)
Aggregator Sites (5)
The Ladders (7)
Monster (1)
2007
Niche Sites (4)
23.0%
(2)
CareerBuilder
HotJobs (3)
9.9% 28.9%
2008

All Other = 10.1%
Acquisitions
Community organizations
Company reputation
Direct email job alerts from ATS
Direct mail campaigns
Diversity organizations
Don't know
Electronic marquee on Headqtrs
JMO Program
Manager networks
Migrated from legacy database
Professional associations
Radio
Silver Medalists
State Employment Agencies
Television

Diversity
Rank Relative Effectiveness of
Diversity Sources
1 Employee Referrals
2 Company Affinity Groups p
r
3 Major Job Boards o
4 Social Networks d
u
5 Agencies (3rd Party)
c
6 Dedicated Diversity Sourcers t
7 Diversity Career Fairs i
v
8 Niche (Diversity) Job Boards e
9 Dedicated Diversity Recruiters 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
How productive are each of the
following sources for diversity hiring?

Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned
”Don’t Know” Doesn’t cut it.
How much of your “OTHER” category is “I don’t know”
Do not close a position unless the SOH
for the selected individual is filled

Lessons Learned
”Don’t hire” Doesn’t cut it either.
Do you hire/oversee all classes/categories of F/T hiring?
Only half of Corporate Staffing Functions
are responsible for every F/T hire.

Lessons Learned
”Don’t hire” Doesn’t cut it either.
How do you manage Contract/Contingent/Past-time hires?
Staffing leaders must be aware of their “universe”
& its impact on their business.

Lessons Learned
81.8%
“They” Can’t Read your Mind
Create simple drill-down menus i.e. “Career site” > alpha list of job boards

Lessons Learned
Prove it.
Confirm Self-report.
25% Compare self-report with source IP Address
or, contract for reports from job distribution services
9%
Request [survey] confirmation from new hires
14%
36% Add SOH questions during Interview phase
5% Conduct focus groups during onboarding

Lessons Learned
One [SOH] is not enough.
Multiple Sources are more likely.
What are the patterns of Source(s) over time that
influence decisions of Quality candidates to apply?

2009 Plans
Improve Direct Sourcing, Social Network Connections and SEM
“We need to greatly increase our focus on Social Networking.” “Developing a dedicated internal
sourcing function.” “More movement towards utilizing social networks.”
Reduce Agency, Job Board and Print
“Looking at moving away from [Job Board] postings.” “Bringing Executive Search in-house.”
“Agency hires will be severely scrutinized.” “No more print- highest cost, fewest hires.” “Restrict
use of third party agencies.”
Increase Referrals
“Develop a micro employee referral strategy.” “Researching [why] employee referral program is
not expanding.”
Track and Train
“Educate our Recruiters on appropriate source coding.” “Track quality of hire to build quality of
source .” “Analyze results more frequently.”
Improve Careers Pages
“Creating landing pages.” “Starting next Careers Website redesign.”

THINK
8th Annual Sources of Hire Study released Feb 2009
http://www.careerxroads.com/news/articles.asp
Good Hunting!
Gerry Crispin, sphr & Mark Mehler
Founders & Principals, CareerXroads
www. CareerXroads.com,
mmc@careerxroads.com
732-821-6652