As a recruiter are you not worried that lessors could move to this service instead of using recruiters like yourselves ?

[Fred St Laurent]

Two questions surfaced in regards to my review of the new ELFA job board and I thought they were worth blogging about.
First:
As a recruiter are you not worried that Lessors could move to this service instead of using recruiters like yourselves?
Honestly I think that a service like this is great for leasing for a number of reasons. It is a needed resource for those people who are out of work or find themselves in a situation where they may soon be. In the economy today where banks are swallowing banks and the stock market is trending sharply downward, people will need every resource available to network and find employment. This far outweighs my concerns about whether I will be utilized as a recruiter. People need jobs!
Companies will now also have a needed resource to find people in an economy that is making growth capital difficult to come by. Smaller firms will be able to better compete with the larger firms for talent and this is important.
Additionally, if marketing is targeting college campuses and even high schools correctly our industry could begin to foster interest with young people early on that will develop intern programs (scholarships with future work commitments would be cheaper than recruiting fees) and bring much needed new blood into our industry.

If the question is do I think that job boards will put us out of business? No I do not believe that this will negatively impact recruiting on the level that we recruit. It may have a dramatic impact on contingency recruiting though. Contingency recruiting is “low hanging fruit” networking and it involves recruiters who have a certain “circle of influence” that are brought on a project in hopes that there can be a good candidate in their rolodex. This is why contingency searches normally involve multiple recruiting firms. They are needed to expand the individual recruiters limited “circle of influence”
But what does one do when the best candidate cannot be found in the normal ads, and recruiting circles?
The only option left is to engage a firm who can work outside the box, cold calling, enticing and qualifying people on a higher level. These are what we call “passive candidates” who do not even have a resume put together when we call. These are the people that a job board will never reach.
This is our model.
This is why some recruiting firms will tell a client that a certain type of candidate does not exist at a certain range of income and yet we end up being successful in the long term finding that “impossible to find” candidate. (Although it can take time and patience)

Last:
Also, how does someone load a resume whilst making sure their current employer can't see it?

This is an important question in that some people want to keep their jobs and are looking at opportunities while still employed. The ELFA site does have an option at the bottom to keep the resume confidential (so do most job boards) however what can happen is that someone will paste a resume into the space available in its entirety and although the basic contact information will be kept confidential with the posting, it will all be included in the resume posted. What happens then is that an HR recruiter or manager from their firm can find them and it could cost them their job.
Even if the name and contact information is not included, a resume can be written specifically enough so that a manager at the employee’s firm will have no difficulty in guessing who they are. This can have serious consequences.
The best way to remain anonymous is to apply directly to jobs without posting your information, or develop a secure relationship with a recruiter you can trust and send them after the job opening. This is best if there is a concern about whether you might lose your job because you are actively looking for a change.