Dive Brief:

• Is the recruitment model predictive enough to determine future success? Formerly, the size of a recruitment agency's talent pool was considered a measurement of it's performance, but today, recruitment is more about building long-term relationships with talent to make sure they are genuinely interested in working for companies and not simply looking for any job. 
• "With the onset of the importance of employer branding, a new era of talent competition is coming and the ones to come out on top will be the companies who engage their talent pools," writes Ian Hamilton, founder of People Traction and contributor to Undercover Recruiter. 
• Engaging talent happens through a number of channels, and is reliant on the content that is produced to keep candidates interested in what the company has to offer. Hamilton gives some great examples of this, and urges recruiters to tap into social media, mobile apps, offline news, and emails to stay connected to talent. The success of a recruitment firm is measured in data about the engagement level of candidates. 

Dive Insight:

Hamilton makes some very good points about modern day recruitment and the opportunity to engage more candidates for long term success. Very often, recruiters have been caught up in the short term numbers game. Now, things are changing as recruiters are looking for more sustainable methods to stay ahead of the competition.

It's a candidate-driven market and it's expected to remain so for at least the next couple of years. Online hob posting is up, as is the use of social networking to attract the best talent. By using the additional tactics that Hamilton provides, recruiters can build talent pipelines of engaged candidates for placement in future jobs.