Seven Strategic Dual Roles of Tomorrow’s Recruiters

The swift horse are usually found, but not the same as ‘Pak Lok" (the person who has good judgments to spot ‘Long Distance Running Horse’.
Oriental Proverb

Like the Pak Lok, every recruiter intent to hunt for the right talent, but with different approach: yesterday’s recruiters are busy searching for the keyword, evaluate the right horse with their outdated methodology, personal judgment, old channel and fitness on the surface, most often they spot the short distance running horse, bring in the candidate with the short-term perspective or similar mindset to many organizations, that might be the deep reason for the leadership failure in Great Recession and the root cause for How the Mighty Fall


Tomorrow’s recruiters will learn from Pak Lok, see through their clients’ character and courage, walk through their soul and heart, to become the superior talent master and visionary soul hunter.

Here are the seven strategic dual roles defined for the futuristic recruiters, to inspire more discussion:

1.The Visionary & the Change Agent

Most of today’s recruiters treat candidate like mechanical component with standard functionality, move them from company A to company B horizontally, then the organizations assemble them into the same old machine (framework) with the same old CPU (mindset).

The true change agent recruiters or entrepreneurial recruiters not only exploit the traditional talent pipeline, just like energy sector, it’s a strategic imperative to explore the renewable talent energy: no matter it’s solar panel (the sunshine type talent, with positive mindset, not too much shadows), clean tech (the water flow type talent, desire to move on & up, with transferrable strength), or biofuel (the nature made raw talent, their specialties to make impossible possible., etc).

Tomorrow’s recruiters are not only the change agent in their own industry, but also have the deep vision for their clients’ industries (anyway, we have so many troubled industries around), help build up the dream team with inspiring mind & culture, and shake up those traditional industries.

The progressive global talent is the best product in recruiting industry and the human society overall.

2.The Soul Hunter & Talent Master
That in the soul which is called the mind is, before it thinks…. Aristotle

Today’s recruiters are called headhunters: try to hunt for the right head based on the static keyword searching, through their limited talent pipeline and old-fashioned recruiting channels.

However, in this post recession era, change is the only thing won’t change in the future, globalization, diversity, and the culture thing will last forever.

Tomorrow’s recruiters are hunting for the GOOD HEART: the purpose & mission, the MEGA MIND: the whole-brain thinker,& the thought leadership; and the BIG GUT: the courage & character.

Tomorrow’s talent masters like gardener, treat the talent like viable plants, help the tree grow taller, stronger, also watering the grass to make them greener, fresher, the talent master work with the executives from top down, to build up the positive learning culture and talent landscape, full of sunshine and pleasant aura.


3.The Strategist & the Practitioner
When the winds of change blow, some people build walls and others build windmills. 
Oriental Proverb

In the last decade, many recruiters make the strategic move to transform the business model from offline to online, the pros is online platform bring up the convenient interface for technical job hunting activities such as searching position open (mainly mid-level or lower) or submitting resumes., etc. however, the cons is: it seems build up the new wall between the employer and candidate.

The future of recruiting approach should be more hybrid and tactical: keep online automation and convenience, also have more transparent offline process and face-to face interaction and activities, take more initiative to fill up the talent gap, grow, renew and expand the talent pool.

4.Organization Architect & Human Engineer
The future of recruiters are both “soul hunter” and “soul engineer”

Today’s recruiters are more like administrative function inside the organization or outsourced HR solution. Tomorrow’s recruiters are the best strategic partners to work with the executives or the clients shoulder by shoulder, head to head,, they take action as the enterprise HR architect, take advantage of the latest technology such as enterprise 2.0 and social network, to breakthrough the hierarchy & bureaucracy, frame up the learning organization, and share the unconventional success story.

The recruiters and talent coach can also be called the human “soul engineer”: using engineering perspective, pivotal talent segment, dealing with talent risk, building up HR governance, implementing talent diversification, digging into multiple talent channels and exploring the alternative talent pipeline.

5.The Artist & Scientist
“ Good artists copy, great artists steal” Picasso

Today’s recruiters may just try to “steal” the talent from the competitors. Tomorrow’s recruiters are brighter with more holistic nature: cycle the talent cross the industry, even cross the global.

The future of recruiters are the great artists, treat each talent as a piece of art, to appreciate the master piece, and to master the innovative talent via connecting the dots:

“I am not a physician and a storyteller, I regard the two things as linked..”
Oliver Sacks (Professor and Writer)

The future of recruiter is also the scientist, with the right technology such as advance analytics, HR metrics, Performance Management, the talent could be observed, experimented and explained in the respected and humanity way.

The future of recruiter develop the right process and value system to “harden” the soft skill such as leadership, entrepreneurship., etc, and “soften” the hard skill such as the engineering and financing. They are framing the new HR discipline with the artistic perspective and scientific methodology.

6.The Philosopher & Philanthropist

“Just as there is a blueprint of a building or a circle, so to there exist blueprints of courage, of justice, of humankind, of all living things. Western Philosophy

From philosophical perspective, the recruiters may have one of the most meaningful careers in the world: to hunt for the very best blueprint: the courage, the justice, the humanity., etc., to architect the blueprint of the great organization, the city, the nation and whole human society.

From philanthropic point of view, the recruiter may also have one of the most valuable professions: help human reach the full potential to advance the humanity. Besides help human out of poverty and illness, talent management is truly the next level of philanthropy, if we connect the dot again, the advanced education and talent management system could naturally speed up the human’s advancement from the basic survival demand. The charity effort in many large organization may also need connect with their talent strategy, since the charity is truly beyond tax saving or public relationship, it’s the blueprint of organization’s purpose.

7.Enterprise Surgeon & Pharmacist


Great Recession left us with many struggling industries and troubled organizations, plus the large available talent pool. It’s the perfect timing for the recruiters and all HR professionals to make a difference with more bold initiative, aggressive roadmap and innovative approach:

The future of recruiters like surgeon to help fix those sick enterprises with new blood, open mind and fresh eyes; The visionary (who can see the others can not), the next generation of leadership and talent will be the right panacea (possibly made of the West Medicine & East Medicine magic combination).

In summary, Pearl are everywhere, but not the same as the eyes, Like the Pak Lok, to spot ‘Long Distance Running Horse with the insight, The future of recruiters will have audacious attitude, the sharp eyes, the open mind and the big heart, to fit in this seven strategic dual roles, to hunt for the right souls in the 21st century.