In the age of social networking, social media sites are gradually becoming the more favored way to connect with people from all across the world. The recruiting industry is no exception. Recruiters and HR managers are looking at different ways for utilizing this medium for their own benefit. Social media has made it possible for recruiters to target a wide population at a time and post job opportunities almost instantly without investing a lot of time or money.
Why Social Media?
From December 2008 to December 2009, the time spent on social media sites increased to 82% – according to a 2010 report of the Nielson Company. Simply Hired too published a report in 2010 stating that over half of UK job seekers are using social media sites for their job search – around 18% use Facebook whereas LinkedIn has the major share of about 31% of the job seekers.
There is a phenomenal growth in using social media sites in the past few years. Potential candidates are there; thus, companies and recruiters should have an active social presence to engage candidates in the recruitment process. The process includes engaging with various talents across the different social networking platforms. And recruiters and companies need to work together to achieve this.
At present, around 35% of companies use social media sites to promote themselves. Among them, about 21% of companies are using social networking sites for research and recruiting employees. With the given efficiency and ease-of-use, it is more likely that social media sites will be used extensively in the future by companies for recruitment purposes. However, the question that arises now is that, “what will be the impacts of social media on the recruitment industry?” Can social media sites serve as a reliable medium to accomplish the task of hiring suitable candidates?
The answer is that it depends on the level and type of recruiting you are looking for. LinkedIn is the best place to find candidates. Facebook too helps, but to a lesser degree. The recruiters need to adopt strategies to make the most out of the social media sites, when it comes to finding and hiring new talents.
The following are some advantages of social media on recruitment:
Target passive candidates: Attracting passive candidates to engage quality job seekers is one of the critical aspects of recruiting through social media. There are many potential candidates on the social media who have the required skill sets for your company, but are not actively searching for a job. With social media, you can connect with such candidates and hire a right fit for your company. However, to achieve this mere posting and tweeting job openings on social networking sites would be insufficient Adoption of newer methods of social media and a long term strategy would lead to better engagement with your socially savvy audience and job seekers
Showcasing employment brand: Social media profiles are one of the best options to showcase your employment brand, highlighting the factors that make your company a unique place for people to work.. Share-worthy content providing key information such as general industry employment trends, your company culture, career growth opportunities, and interview processes goes a long way in establishing an organisation’s credentials as a worthy employer. Accomplishing this task successfully helps you to attract the right fit for your company, who know and care about the mission and goals of the company. Besides, it will provide the job seekers with opportunities to ask questions and know more about your company’s culture and unique aspects, thus helping them to demonstrate their individual enthusiasm and capabilities.
Social referrals: If you already have a good number of fans, followers and connection on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, they can be used as social referrals. This is considered one of the best sources for hiring. Such referrals enable companies and recruiters to tap networks beyond what they can possibly reach for themselves. In fact, social referrals have taken a completely new meaning, as most of the top talent and target candidates hang out on social media. And getting such referrals is now faster, easier and more cost-effective, as LinkedIn has more than 100 million users and Facebook over 900 millions. And with each additional connection, your network reach continues to expand, which in turn helps you to find more targeted referrals.
Understand the potential employees’ behavior: Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter have become a great platform for sharing personal information as well. People post great deal of personal information, which is accessible to the public as well as to their potential employer. Thus, companies and recruiters can now access such written information as well as photographs relating to the behavior of the potential employee outside of work. Such behaviors often have the potential to affect their dignity and reputation within work. Besides, you can also understand their political inclination and cultural practices.
Though probing into your employee’s personal life is not always an ethical idea, especially when it comes to stalk his/ her every move, analyzing his/ her social media profile would help you to understand if the person is a right cultural fit for your organization.
LinkedIn – A great way to find new talents
When it comes to choose one social platform over another for recruiting skilled employees, LinkedIn is the best option. It has an interconnected network of skilled and experienced professionals from all across the world, representing 200 countries and 170 industries. You can be introduced to or find qualified professionals and collaborate with them to accomplish your hiring goals. According to a research conducted by Lewishowes.com in 2010, 83% of employers were planning to use or already using social media sites for recruitment and 46% of companies planned to spend more time and resource on social recruiting. Among the 80% of the companies using social media for recruiting, 90% use LinkedIn, making it one of the best available options to gather information about potential candidates.
