Courtesy of Gerry Crispin & Mark Mehler, CareerXroads:

1. Internal Transfers and Promotions were 38.8% of ALL the full-time positions a company fills. Nine firms are at or above 50%. We think it worth noting that the significant increase in the proportion of internal to external fills in 2008 versus 2007 (28%) is at least partially due to the deteriorating economic climate during 2008. We think this conclusion is further supported by the survey respondents’ estimate that the number of contingent workers employed by their respective firms decreased from 18% in 2007 to 10% in 2008. Cleary the data reflects a shift in emphasis to filling internally and squeezing external hires. We still don’t understand why more firms don’t tout their internal movement numbers as a means to prove their commitment to development. This continues to be a missed opportunity.
2. Referrals (employee, alumni, vendor, etc.) make up 27.3% of all external hires and is arguably the number one external source. (Employee referrals make up most of this category but Alumni referrals are growing.)The efficiency of referrals is one of the single most important characteristics of US hiring practices. 26 firms tracked the number of referrals as well as hires from referrals. More than 17,000 positions were filled from just fewer than 200,000 referrals or 1 hire for every 11.2 referrals!
3. Job Boards (not including the company site) represent 12.3% of external hires. We believe this SOH (source of hire) has indeed peaked and predict it will diminish in the future. Within the category, Monster has lost ground to CareerBuilder. The two of them account for half the job board hires but both are losing ground to the “long-tail” of niche sites, social networks and other online search engine marketing capabilities that are expanding their reach. The gray area where boards are morphing into much broader suites of services makes it difficult to draw hard and fast conclusions.
4. Company Website hires are a problem for us (we maintain that the company web site is a destination not a source) and essentially represents one of every five external hires. There is no question about the importance of the company site’s staffing pages as a critical “channel” but its acceptance by corporations as a source likely occludes other, more relevant starting points driving prospects and candidates.
   

When reviewing the CareerXroads findings, think about how you are currently spending your job search time. What percentage are you putting into networking versus responding to online ads? Time to rethink your strategy? Use the above stats to determine how you spend your time. Set up some networking meetings.

Want more tips to get the most from your networking efforts? Check out our newsroom: www.knocks.com/news.aps.

Now go get ’em!