The recruiting profession is extremely time intensive.  If your business is to flourish, your employees are not working a normal forty-hour work week.  If you are a working owner, you have three full-time jobs:

• Business Owner
• Manager
• Producer

When you review your schedule, chances are you are spending the majority of your time working your desk and managing the individuals who work for you.  When I use to attend conferences I remember hearing speakers always advise “Don’t work in your business, work on your business” and I always thought to myself, they obviously don’t understand our business.

As a business owner it is vitally important to set time aside every week to do exactly that, work on your business.  If your entire day is spent working your desk and managing your employees, there is no time to become aware of trends, market changes or issues that could have a dramatic impact on your company.  Your goal should be to become a proactive, informed entrepreneur vs. a reactive one.  

Listed below are numerous ways to anticipate trends.

• Join your professional national, state and/or local associations and read their emails and publications.  It is their job to keep members informed.

• Read publications targeting the recruiting profession, Employment Marketplace, The Fordyce Letter, Staffing Industry Report. These publications are filled with articles that can help you anticipate trends.

• Attend conferences to network with other owners.  You learn more from the other attendees than you do in the sessions.  Pay special attention to the owners who you know are extremely successful.  They obviously know how to anticipate and prepare for trends.

• Read business publications, commit to a lifetime of learning in order to grow your company.  Subscribe to the publications your clients and candidates read.

• Join the professional associations your clients and candidates attend.  These associations also keep their members informed.  Attending events are not only great networking opportunities, but also give you a chance to listen carefully to the discussions of attendees which again can reveal trends.

• Pay attention to the business climate globally.  Global trends do impact the global economy and job markets. 

• Participate in surveys for our profession, so you will receive a copy of the results.

• Whenever possible, participate in Mastermind Groups of business leaders.  Issues discussed reveal trends you need to anticipate.

• Watch trends starting on the West and East Coasts.  Trends start on the coasts and work their way toward the middle of the country.

• Pay attention to the global economy, which does impact your business.

• Become a Trusted Advisor to your hiring authorities and listen carefully to the workforce/workplace issues they discuss with you.  A pattern of certain questions will reveal concerns and help you identify upcoming trends within your areas of specialization and location.

• If you work a local market, join your Chamber of Commerce, read their publications and attend functions.  The main topic discussed by most business leaders are trends that impact their businesses.  You want to become a part of those discussions.

• Don’t believe everything you read in the newspaper and watch on TV.  If owners in our profession believed the news media between 2009 and 2011, we would have all shut our doors.  When there is an economic downturn, your business can still flourish.  You will have to increase daily activity levels and result levels, but you can still increase your profits.

• Learn to listen strategically to your candidates during interviews.  These individuals have inside information on their current employer and again, can provide you with valuable information that will help you position your company.

Follow this advice and you will be able to anticipate trends.