Future of recruitment agencies

We're not the only agency to have made a hiring via Twitter. You'll see from the comments on my last post that other people in the PR industry have done the same via LinkedIn and Twitter.

What does this mean for the recruitment industry? Over the last decade we've seen the web squeeze businesses based on an agent or intermediary model many times. Think about estate agents, dating agencies and travel agents. During tough economic climates, such as we're currently predicted to be facing, the impact will always be exaggerated and businesses seek to drive out cost wherever possible.

To some extent the recruitment industry has been here before of course. Monster was predicted to sound its death knell. It didn't of course. Instead smart recruitment firms embraced online job boards and were forced to innovate and add value.

So does anyone fancy making a prediction for the future of the recruitment industry in an era of social communities? And are there any recruiters reengineering their businesses to take advantage of social media?

Also posted on www.rainierpr.co.uk