Impact of Specialization on Recruiter Productivity in the Staffing Industry

Abstract

The United States Staffing industry has seen tremendous growth since the 1990s, eclipsing $150 billion in market share in 2019. While the magnitude of the staffing industry seems large, the amount of competition has increased exponentially. As a result, industry leaders have begun to look for new ways to adjust their recruiter development to increase market share. It has become imperative for staffing companies to adopt a dedicated specialized delivery model to differentiate themselves.

This research seeks to understand the impact of specialization on recruiter performance. By analyzing recruiter-level panel data from an IT staffing company, we found that a specialization model had a positive yet statistically insignificant impact on recruiter productivity. With 2021 being the adoption year, the true effect may only be partially captured because the economy was not fully open due to COVID-19. Further, the real impact of a specialization model could take a few years to materialize. Therefore, we expect to observe a much more significant influence in subsequent years if the data becomes available.