In the first two parts of this series, we covered current statistics in hiring and recruiting as well as current trends in hiring and recruiting costs and efficiencies. In the final part of this series, we're presenting five great ideas that employers ought to consider for their talent acquisition initiatives. These ideas are specific recommendations that address the statistics and trends featured in the first two parts. Implementing one or all of these ideas effectively will enable employers to hire more creatively and efficiently, which is necessary in today's talent shortage in the marketplace.

Summer is one of the busier times of the year for recruiters and hiring managers. There's an influx of young talent with college degrees looking for gainful employment. The summer months are also prime time for internships and temporary employment, where people can fulfill needs to handle additional customers or to try something new for a few months. The year is also halfway over, urging many company's to evaluate their progress toward hiring and recruiting goals. This week's hiring and recruiting news roundup features articles that are appropriate for the needs of the summer months: hiring the best talent, choosing who to hire, and how to improve your current recruiting process.

In the first part of our series on hiring and recruiting statistics, we covered a few of the latest statistics reflecting the state of hiring in the United States. Although three-fourths of organization said they were planning to hire this year, and that more job openings are being advertised online than in 2010, filling those openings effectively and hiring efficiently are still big challenges. In the second part of this three-part series, we have three of the latest trends on hiring costs and recruiting efficiencies. Knowing these trends should help you overcome the challenges of hiring effectively and efficiently by illustrating areas where you can improve your recruiting process.

We're almost halfway through the year, and nearly three-fourths of organizations said at the beginning of the year that they were planning to hire this year. Many of those organizations may have already made their hires. Others may still be looking to fill positions, or may not have started hiring those that they planned to hire in 2014. Companies who aren't yet finished hiring for the year need to pay attention, as any recruiting challenges you may be facing might only get tougher to overcome. The following three eye-opening statistics reflect today's hiring and recruiting landscape, and suggest acquiring the best talent isn't going to get any easier.

Statistic #1: The U.S.'s Employment Participation Rate is at 63.2%

The employment participant is defined as anyone between the ages of 16 and 64 who is employed or is currently seeking a job. Typically, the employment participation rate (which is also known as the labor force participation rate) hovers between 67 and 68 percent. With the participation rate, as of March 2014, at 63.2% it means that more than 90 million Americans are no longer employed or looking for work, instead of the normal 70 million. In the last 13 years, an additional 20 million people have taken themselves out of the workforce, for whatever reason.

"It also says we have a lower population to recruit from," said Ray Rike, chief operations officer with Accolo. "So, in those functions where there's a war for talent... it's going to force us to be even more intelligent and smart about the way we're going out and recruiting great employees today."

What does it take to be a great recruiter, or even to find great recruiters for your organization? What does it take to create the results that your clients and colleagues want? This week's hiring and recruiting news roundup answers these questions, outlining some of the best practices and mindsets for successful recruiters, recruiting, and employee engagement.

On this blog, we've covered extensively the consequences of bad hiring decisions and why these decisions go wrong in the first place. It's easy to place blame and to understand the consequences. But, it's much harder to prevent these problems from happening again, and to know exactly why the bad hiring decision was made. Hopefully, we can make things a little less complicated with prevention. Here's how to stop those bad hiring decisions before they are made and stop the wrong person from ending up in your organization.

Flexible work options, and the work/life balance (or fit, as one of this week's articles likes to call it), are much more popular than ever. More companies are also opening up to these options, realizing that these options help the company as much as the employee. Below are the latest, and greatest article, about RPO, flex work, and how they can fit into your hiring strategy.