If anything good can be taken from the recent inclement jobs climate, it’s that businesses now care more about their customers.

And this is never better exemplified than in the employment game, where jobseekers – in particular – are beginning to reap the rewards of enforced empowered community engagement from every cog of the recruitment wheel.

But there’s caution in the air.  For flimsy fortitude in a precarious economy will unravel a ribbon of riotous wrongs, where short-sighted settlement-seekers will soon find their newly-built congregations blown to dust when the big bad wolf of retribution comes in search of those greedy little pigs only in ‘it’ for the bacon.

But as time will tell, you can’t make a silk purse out of a sows ear.

So, what is ‘it’?

‘It’ is the development of communities: networks, hubs, lounges or groups – call them what you will – of like-minded thought-leaders, whose ambition is driven by the wonderful – but entirely emotional – sense of altruism, where the common feeling is to ‘get out of this mess together, move on together and prosper together at the other end’.

And why is this good for jobseekers?

The staffing industry is shaken by events over the past two years and, let’s face it, has taken a bit of a bashing from a number of disgruntled quarters.  But for many this has provided time for reflection – a chance to wear different hats and pull up lazy socks.  The days of apathetic recruitment are history.  The realisation is that without empathising with its candidates and understanding more about its clients, the traditional recruitment model is likely to flounder in the big scary waters of…yes…social media – and all it’s hired henchmen.

Okay, so go on with the social media…

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn et al: they’re all about networking; whether socially or professionally, the proposal is the same: make contacts; build relations; get friends.  So if we’re all doing that (and 60 million of us are via LinkedIn, for example!) then it’s obvious that we’ll come into contact with the same folk many times over.  It’s the six degrees of separation theory.  Or, to be more contemporary, the Human Web.  And throughout all this intermingling and shoulder-rubbing we are creating nodes of inter-dissectible groups, surreptitiously collected as synergetic companions.

Harnessing the synergy

We all live in communities, scurrying about like hyperactive ants; building colonies fit-for-purpose in an ever-changing environment.  And along the way an army is constructed, within which a multitude of opportunities exist.  For jobseekers this means closer engagement with employers; for recruiters it means being on the front-line of both potential candidate and client interactivity; for employers it means greater visibility at both ends; and for peripheral industry players these communities provide a gateway to all the above.

The future is already here

2010 is undoubtedly the year of the community.  Forget what’s round the corner.  Act for the now.  This is no time for the social hermit.

Join the Only Marketing Jobs community – we’re closer than you think.  No wolfs allowed.

What do your communities offer you? Are you a jobseeker paying for a ‘club’ service, perhaps?  Recruiters, what differences are you making to your talent pool?

Simon Lewis | Editor | Only Marketing Jobs

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