• Whether we completely understand what it is or does, Jobster stole the show for 2006.  They showed us that the power of the referral/portal/recruiter services business.  Their flexible strategic approach and ability to adapt quickly to changing, growing and maturing market pressures illustrates what 21^st century organizations will need to foster if they wish to succeed.
   

• Screening and assessment became almost commonplace and most Fortune 500 organizations are using some form of testing in selecting candidates. Charles Handler (http://www.rocket-hire.com/newsletter/2006/04/feature.html) recorded a significant increase in the use of online screening and assessment tools over 2006.
   

• RPO came of age. Although far from new, RPO has taken on more significance as talent shortages spread. More and more organizations are outsourcing some or all of their recruiting and this trend will continue over the next 3-5 years. The formation of the RPO Association (http://www.rpoassociation.org/index.php)  is an attempt to bring definition, standards and training to this growing industry.
   

• MySpace, Facebook and other destination sites allowed organizations for the first time to create profiles and images for themselves that could attract and intrigue younger candidates. While not yet mainstream or even very sophisticated, and certainly not a factor in experienced recruiting, these sites are the early harbinger of what recruiting advertising will look like.  Watch for significant growth and experimentation for recruiting in this space and also with the creation of simulated work environments in applications like Secondlife.  
   

• Candidate sourcing was a topic that dominated the second half of the year. Many organizations have created in-house sourcing groups and are focusing on creating talent pipelines and communities.  Augmenting this trend is renewed interest and a few new tools for communicating with candidates and in building online relationships with them.
   

• Along with this trend, is a growing specialization within recruiting. Organizations are hiring people to focus on a specific area such as research, sourcing, candidate assessment, candidate communication, employment branding, closing, etc.  The generalist recruiter with a broad array of skills may be endangered.
   

• 2006 also saw more awareness among recruiters that the differentiators between applicant tracking systems  is their customer service levels and  ease of implementation, not how many features they offer. Most ATSs are so similar that the usual feature contests are becoming less and less relevant.
   

• Search tools became more sophisticated and more used as recruiting tools.  While Internet search has been around almost as long as the Internet, the new tools such as Zoominfo, W3 Data and Accurint are making it easier for recruiters as is the growing number of people who now have a web presence.
   

• But, all in all, nothing changed very much. 2006 was a year of evolution, not revolution and most of the changes and events I note above were noticed by only a handful of perceptive folks. I think 2007 will be a similar year with more evolution and more strengthening of search, referral, metrics and tracking and with more experimentation with viral marketing and more interactive websites.

 The series so far:

2006 in Review

• Amitai Givertz : Top 10 in 2006 (v1)

• David Hurst : Top 10 in 2006 (v2)

• Scott Dow : Top 10 in 2006 (v3)

• Kevin Wheeler : Top 10 in 2006 (v4)