No other statement I made at our Impact 2011 conference in April seemed to have touched as many people as that one.  In the hours and days following my presentation, that simple aside turned into the one that opened the doors to conversations with a lot of “non-recruiting” people.  I was hearing from CHROs (Chief Human Resource Officer), CLOs (Chief Learning Officer) and VPs of Global Talent all about what recruiting was when they were coming into the industry and even some of the perceptions around talent acquisition they carried to this day.   

I have spent more than a decade in HR and Recruitment.  From my first job working in the college career services center helping corporate recruiters better understand campus hiring, to executive search, corporate recruiting leadership, recruitment strategy consulting and leading an applicant tracking system – it has all led to a better understanding of just how far we have come since the days of “personnel” The revolution that has taken place in the Talent Acquisition industry over the past few decades, has been nothing short of amazing. 

My first three months at Bersin & Associates,  only confirmed that there isn’t another industry I’d rather be focused on researching, learning and understanding.  I’ve also realized that there is more to talk about than I could even imagine!   

But I’m going to try. 

Our agenda this year is filled with feedback that we have gotten during my first 14 weeks here.  During that time, I have attended or spoke at five conferences (domestic and international), published a 250-plus page report on the talent acquisition system marketplace, met with dozens of vendors and spoke to more than 100 corporate recruiters and leaders about the challenges they are facing, and what we, at Bersin & Associates, can do to empower them in their jobs. 

The results were relatively simple – we want more!  More research, more webinars, more industry studies on technology, more ways to engage and more metrics to help us sell our agendas internally.  

So, that is what we are going to do.    

Along the way, I invite you to provide feedback, suggestions and ideas on other areas you want us to talk about, research and investigate.  My email is always open – sarah.white@bersin.com - I look forward to exploring hire innovations in talent acquisition with you.