Recruiting in the future

Heather Leigh (of Microsoft fame) posted an interesting item on the possible new .jobs domain. She ponders the world of this new domain and the impact on the commercial job boards and they they might have then focus on tools that allow the seeker to search for jobs across the domain. Some of her thoughts are similar to the post I made about a month ago on forward thinking recruitment ideas. I agree with Heather such changes would have a significant impact on a recruiter and the candidate, but I am not sure we need a new TLD to make these things happen. Many of the changes Heather talks about could be accomplished today with usage of technology we have today, a big hurdle is how do we change the practice of the job seeker and job boards to participate?

Personally I had heard the domain was not going anywhere very quickly, but I could be wrong. I am also not familiar with the TLD process so I could be completely off with the items below. If I am off I would like to find out more from others in the know.

Heather also refers to a post on Gerry Crispin's site. Gerry has some good ideas, however I am concerned by SHRM wanting to control the domain. Certainly SHRM had the foresight to put together a proposal to ICANN earlier this year. Certain elements of the proposal have me raising an eyebrow and asking "huh?". For example only qualified applicants can apply for registration which is fairly normal, however the definition of qualified I feel is limited and open for poor interpretation.

A qualified applicant ("Qualified Applicant") is a person who is (a) a member of SHRM; or (b) engaged in human resource management practices that meet any of the following criteria: (i) possess salaried-level human resource management experience; (ii) are certified by the Human Resource Certification Institute; or (iii) are supportive of the SHRM Code of Ethical and Professional Standards in Human Resource Management, as amended from time to time (the "Code").

The proposal does go on to say that a member of a company can be deemed a qualified applicant, to allow for smaller organisations to apply. Some of the initial feedback to ICANN states that the reader felt anyone authorised by their employer should be able to establish the domain, others just felt the domain as a waste of time and a grab for more domain revenue.

My of my thoughts is that how will a global company use the TLD? Will there be a .jobs.au? Or just a single domain for the organisation? If a single domain will large global organisation streamline their recruitment processes so that they are the same globally or will they differ by country as is the case with a majority of organisations? I know these are not issues which ICANN needs to resolve but they will need to be resolved for the global success of the TLD. Certainly such a TLD would open the door for some new innovative solutions for these organisations.

Thoughts from others would be good, as I suspect I am missing bits of the big picture.

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