Crowdsourcing in recruitment - what impact will this have on the profession?

[Paul Jacobs]

I read a book recently by Jeff Howe called Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of the Crowd Is Driving the Future of .... Howe coined the term 'crowdsourcing' in June 2006 in a Wired article to describe the process by which the power of the many can be leveraged to accomplish feats that were once the territory of a specialized few. He adds that the crowd is more than wise—it’s talented, creative, and stunningly productive. The concept of collective intelligence has been around for a while, but with the advent of Web 2.0 and collaborative technologies it is even easier to reach and engage with large and geographically diverse audiences (inside and outside a company). The following sites (eg, eg, eg) often feature when commentators talk about crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing isn’t just about getting feedback from a group; it involves relinquishing power and getting the community involved in design.

This book got me thinking about the potential evolution of HR and recruitment. Howe dedicated a chapter to thinking about a ‘company as a community’. This is a major mind shift. Most HR and recruitment strategizing and design takes place in isolation, within the HR function, and sometimes in consultation with others (eg senior management, marketing, IT, external specialists, vendors, customers). Instead, why not crowdsource it? Invite the wider community of employees, managers, jobseekers, and third-party recruitment agencies to help develop the company’s employee value propositions (EVPs), employer brand, recruitment charter, etc. Use wikis, micro-blogs, blogs, social networking sites, polls, etc to reach out and engage with the community in real time. The community will more likely buy into a shared, collectively-created vision. They will not only interact with the company’s brand, they will feel a sense of ownership, even if they don’t work there (yet).

Within the last couple of weeks, another recruitment application for crowdsourcing jumped from way out of left-field - thanks Joshua Kahn for alerting me to this. Best Buy crowdsourced the design of a job description. Check out the details here. I love how this has evolved, and enjoyed following the discussion around the ideal person specification. You have to admit this is all very counter-intuitive.

What are your thoughts on crowdsourcing in HR / recruitment? Will it affect the HR / recruitment profession? Should HR professionals become Community Managers DJs? What other applications are there for crowdsourcing? (eg, could we get the community to shortlist candidates rather than a recruitment panel or agency?)

[Daniel Purchas]

one approach could for shortlisting candidates is a voting model where the crowd sourced reviewers vote on the most suitable candidates for a share of a shortlisting fee if one of the candidates they voted for eventually get hired

[Dan Salter]

Also proving once and for all that life really is just one big popularity contest! Surely this would never work?

Although frankly how different is it than the candidate referral model? What would your business look like if you hired only from employee referrals I wonder... I imagine a bit of a mono culture forming with time but if it works for your business then what's the harm?

Have I convinced myself that this just might work? :o)

[Tim Latham]

This is really interesting to me as we have spent the last year or so developing a recruitment platform which has strong links to crowdsourcin - launched in March 2009 it is called Prefio.com - the property talent network .

In our view a "pure play" crowdsourcing model doesn't work so we have blended elements of technology / crowdsourcing with manual interventions / quality control / confidentiality. Others have tried this type of recruitment model during the last couple of years but our really big point of differentiation is that we are totally focused upon a defined sector and therefore are rapidly gaining "sit up and take notice" critical mass.