Over the past year, my colleagues and I have worked with dozens of major companies using the latest recruiting and sourcing methods. Based on our experience, it’s not a far reach to state that how companies will find, recruit, and hire talent in 2010 will be different than in years past. Here are 7 trends that we see emerging:

• Top talent pool will be tight. As the economy slowly recovers, employers will seek to hire the best talent they can find: the “A” players. However, most of these coveted workers are already gainfully employed. They usually have above-average jobs and are often reluctant to switch. Under these conditions, it will take an aggressive recruiting effort to attract these “passive candidates”.

• Counteroffers will increase. Very few companies will let their top performers walk away without the opportunity to entice them to stay. Most organizations will use their resources proactively to ensure that top performers stay on board, engaged, and productive.

• Expect a spike in turnover. Companies will be unprepared for the high turnover rate when the economy rebounds. Employees will remember the actions of their company in response to the financial crisis. Those employees who suffered through frozen wages and decreased bonuses and perks could exit quickly.

• Interview & job offer process shortened. Companies have lost too many good candidates over the last year due to a time lapse between the interview and job offer. Keep the momentum going by ironing out the details of the job prior to conducting interviews. Also, minimize delays due to organizational bureaucracy and politics.

• More managers and team members will recruit talent. Managers and team members will be turned into recruiters and hiring authorities and make the first contact with the candidate and create the first impression of the company. This will show candidates that hiring the best people is as important a function as designing the best products or offering the highest level of services.

• Background checks to improve as technology improves. According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), 80% of U.S. companies use background checks as part of a pre-employment background screening program. At DRI, we have partnered with SafeGuard, to offer our clients a complete and comprehensive candidate background checks and drug screening reports.

• Expect an increase in candidate testing and assessments. Companies want to dig beyond the resume to identify personal and work behavior of a candidate to determine readiness and desire of the candidate to fulfill the objectives of the position. Recently our own firm partnered with PRADCO, assessments for executives and managers, to ensure a “tailored fit”.