When digitalization, including social media and AI, didn’t cause anyone to lose sleep, personnel search demonstrated a creative mastery that today leaves many recruiters in awe. When Thomas Perlitz remembers what was possible under his leadership as head of human resources at Ingram Micro, Henkel or Gerresheimer, it just pours out of him: On public transport, “which brought shift workers from other companies to the factory and home,” recruiters gave fiery speeches with the aim of convincing the hard workers to change. And to get young people interested in training, Perlitz bought an entire cinema screening – “including popcorn for everyone”.
Surprising, spectacular, emotionally gripping: guerrilla recruiting at its finest. Today, however, personnel recruitment is like an advanced business seminar in which the basic theoretical framework learned has to prove its practical suitability in a case study – thoroughly and as error-free as possible. Everything is scheduled at the beginning of the employee lifecycle; Countless data points accompany candidates from the initial contact to onboarding, every step is meticulously recorded and assessed according to predefined key figures: Where do applicants dock, how well do they meet the requirements, how quickly do they sign the employment contract?
