When you run out of secrets

The business of recruiting is often built on secrets. Specifically, the secret is the hiring company. Companies hire recruiters to find candidates; recruiters advertise the openings but omit the specifics of the company, and applications must deal with the recruiter to find a position. Applicants don't know the name of the hiring company, and this is the secret upon which recruiters build their business.

Recruiters have to keep the company name secret. If they advertised the company name, applicants could go directly to the hiring company and apply. Worse, other recruiters would know about the position and start sending applicants to the hiring company.

The business model is based on the secrecy of the hiring company. Without it, the business fails.

And the secrecy of hiring companies is fading. Search engines make it easy to identify companies. For example, the following is text I received from a recruiter:

I have a client in Owings Mills who is looking for a QA Manager to join the team full time. This is a permanent position with a great company. This company specializes in weight loss products and is doing very well.

This traditionally proffered description contains enough information to identify the hiring company . (Perhaps not with complete accuracy, but good enough in most cases.)

Fortunately for recruiting companies, few applicants use search engines to go directly to hiring companies. And they may not, as they have little incentive. Instead, the hiring companies may use search engines and networking sites to find applicants. Companies do have an incentive: elimination of recruitment fees.

But bypassing recruiters places a burden on the hiring company. They must search for applicants and evaluate them. They may choose to follow a potential hire for some time, waiting for the right opening within the organization. These efforts must be performed by a person. If they assign the task to an employee, they have effectively created an internal recruiting organization. If they soutsource it, they have hired a recruiting firm, albeit one that uses different techniques to find people.

I expect that change will occur slowly, and we will keep the current phrasings of advertisements and recruiting messages. They will be the "proper form" of communication, kept in use by tradition and habit.

Until an upstart creates a new business model.