Social Media Recruitment – Use it or lose it

As social media use becomes more ubiquitous, it may seem like a natural way to identify job applicants and learn more about them. Apparently, 84 percent of organizations are currently recruiting via social media.

Of the employers using social media for recruitment, 96 percent used LinkedIn, while 66 percent and 53 percent used Facebook and Twitter respectively (According to the Society for Human Resource Management). Social media recruitment has become so effective that organisations have optimised their recruiting tools for smartphones, such as career websites, job postings and applications.

These platforms provide an effective way to expand the applicant pool to reach people you may not find through traditional recruiting channels, you can’t engage candidates if you’re not using the sites where they live!

As much as online recruiting can be one of the easiest ways to connect and find new candidates however it can also be one of the most challenging ways due to its nature. It is a tricky place because today, it often combines both personal and professional life accomplishments and can ride that line of ambiguity. People typically have many different social media accounts to use and will often use these places and platforms for different reasons.

However, there is a reason it does exist and has become a popular tool to use when recruiting. We tapped into a few areas of it:

• Screening – Social media can help recruiters get a more holistic view of a job candidate beyond the careful presentation in a job interview. A best practice when using social media to screen candidates is to wait until after the interview, which minimizes the risk of conscious or unconscious bias in selecting candidates to interview. And remember these same candidates are checking up on your company as well. So make sure your companies social media are current, on brand and not offensive!
• Engagement – On any of the major platforms, especially LinkedIn, it is all about engagement. Aim for the right conversations in the right space that you are looking to recruit. The more time and effort you put in, the more your get out of it.
• Revelations – Social Media offers the benefit to an organization by revealing inappropriate behaviours before a job offer is considered. On the flip side it can also offer negative insights into your company if you have bad reviews or comments against certain posts or articles.
• Access to passive candidates – One can reach even those people who are not really searching for a job but have highly polished talents and skills. You might reach the one’s who are feeling like a career change and just need the right information put in front of them to consider it.
• Money Saver – LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are all free to sign up to. Of course there are cost implications to promote or have more tools to search at deeper levels within but it offers a search engine that google doesn’t.
• Attract young talent – Did you know that 99% of 16-24-year-olds are on social media? Okay, so while this stat might not be altogether that shocking, it opens the door to a young talent pool.
• Branding – Personal or company. Social media recruiting gives you a shop window to show off who you are and promote what you are all about. It will help you gain trust when connecting and keep a consistent image.

Social media, love it or hate it is here to stay. The above list is just a snippet of why its becoming invaluable. If you are not using it as a tool you’re likely to lose talent and branding opportunities. It is changing the way that we communicate with both employees and job seekers and these social networks are now a valuable resource to businesses and professionals.

If you are not yet embracing the power of social media for your recruitment efforts, you could risk being left behind.