The role of in-house recruiters may evolve into a more advisory one as social media-savvy line managers take on more day-to-day recruiting, according to recruitment guru Kevin Wheeler, founder and president of the Future of Talent Institute in the US.

At TRU [The Recruiter Unconference] London 3 last week, Wheeler told delegates that the next generation of line managers will have little need for in-house recruiters as they will access their own networks. For now, a good corporate recruiter should advise line managers on the channels they should use, as well as provide them with portals so they can access the best routes to talent.

Line managers come to their recruitment departments as a matter of habit, he added. Sometimes this situation has been created through intimidation and fears that line managers will make some huge mistake and create a liability for the company, he said.

Wheeler said: “Why can’t they [line managers] get on Facebook and LinkedIn and type in what they are looking for and find candidates - what makes you [in-house recruiters] magic? That’s the real question - what’s your secret sauce? I’m a recruiter, I go to LinkedIn, I type in a few search terms, I find some people that look good and send them an email - why not?”

He continued: “We are coming to a line which we are crossing in a whole bunch of professions. I am working with a company that is looking for some very specialised designers. The reason they come to me is the recruiting department is being torn to pieces by line managers who think they [recruiters] are a bunch of idiots - they have no idea what these designers do, you [the recruiters] don’t have the expertise and you won’t go out and get it.”

Wheeler added that a line manager might think: “’I know 30 people, I am going to call them myself’. The line managers know who the people are, they know where they are and have their own referrals.”