Whats the best way to get hired?

CareerXroads releases its annual Sources of Hire Study, covering the hiring trends of some of Americaís largest organizations throughout 2004. The 40 firms who completed the survey employ 2.7 million employees in the US and 4.1 million worldwide. On average each of the respondents to this yearís survey lead or influence staffing organizations of 50 recruiters and, collectively, filled more than million positions. What do the activities of these leading organizations tell us about todayís recruiting environment? Here are some of the key findings.

The Internet and expanding referral networks continue to put pressure on traditional forms of recruiting. Two years ago just over half of all external hires came from Employee Referrals and the Internet. Today 61% of all External Hires can be attributed to just two ëChannelsí- Employee Referrals & the Internet. How many come from the ìtraditionalî want-ads? 5.5% report employers.

The major job boards continue to dominate the Internet: Hires from just three online job services destinations (Monster.com, CareerBuilder and HotJobs) account for 22.8% of all hires attributed to the Internet. ëAll otherí job sites account for 16.9% of the Internet. Perhaps more interesting to note is the high percentage of hires that comes directly from a corporationís website. While some of these surely start on a major job site, a parallel study shows that ìvirtual walk-insî are starting to have an impact on todayís hiring as well.

How do these findings impact recruiting? CareerXroads co-founder Mark Mehler notes, ìMany of todayís employers arenít even tracking sources of hires ñ yet itís the smartest way to manage successful recruiting.î And the report has a lot to tell job seekers too. ìIf youíre looking for a job you should read the report to discover the most likely route into your target company.î

For other statistics including how many open positions are filled internallyÖ and the increase in hires predicted for 2005 read the full report at: www.careerxroads.com/news/SourcesOfHire04.pdf