MightyRecruiterUsing Social Media to Win Candidates and Determine Cultural Fit
When it comes time to hire a new employee, you want to find someone who is going to be a good fit in your company. Finding potential employees and determining a cultural fit can be a bit of a challenge. If you wait until the interview process to start determining how they’d fit into the company, it can really be difficult. You can actually use social media to win candidates and learn more about them before the interview.
You can use social media to find and attract candidates to your company. However, if you do want to do this, you have to know how to brand your own social media, what to look for on the social media of potential candidates and how to bring it all together.
Create an Engaging Profile
Just as you are going to use social media to learn more about potential employees, they are going to use these same resources to learn about your company. If you really want to attract winning candidates, you have to create an engaging profile that clearly highlights values important to your company. Here are a few ways you can easily make your company’s social media sites cultural-centric:
1. Make recruiting videos. You can let candidates know exactly what you’re looking for through a recruiting video. This is a great way to discuss the company philosophy and the management style of the direct supervisor for this position. These can be uploaded to YouTube or Facebook.
2. Share pictures on Facebook. Take pictures of company activities. Whether it’s a holiday party, company picnic or super hero day, post the pictures to Facebook to give a clear idea of what it would be like to work in your company.
3. Answer questions. If any questions are posed to you on Facebook or Twitter, answer them. It doesn’t matter if the question was asked by a potential applicant or a customer, the way you answer will speak volumes about the culture of the company and can cause your social media to win candidates.
4. Put together a talent community. LinkedIn provides uniquely professional advantages. You can create talent communities where those in the IT industry, or whatever your talent community is for, can come together and discuss ideas. This type of community will likely attract candidates with those talents and interests, and they’ll be able to learn more about your company.
5. Create a blog. Finally, you can create a blog specifically for job descriptions. Each position you’re trying to fill can have its own post. This creates a great place for potential applicants to learn more, but it can also create an engaging tool for recruiters and hiring managers to use.
Giving insight into the culture of your company is a great way to attract candidates who will be a good cultural fit. This means you can simultaneously use social media to win candidates and determine their fit.
Look for Cultural Clues
Now that you have a place set up where candidates can learn about the culture at the company, you have to try to gain some information about them. Looking at their social media page is a great place to start. Check their Twitter and Facebook to see what sort of content they share. Look to LinkedIn to learn more about their professional background and accomplishments.
Social media can give you an idea of how well the candidate communicates and how they spend their free time. You can get an idea of their industry knowledge, work history and education. You may even be able to get an idea of how professional they are; do they use profanity, drink a lot or participate in controversial activities
As you look at a potential employee’s social media, you have to be careful to not dig too far. You can’t use social media as a tool for discrimination. Using social media to win candidates is a much safer route.
Bringing it Together
Once you find a promising candidate, or that candidate finds you, you have to compare your company’s culture with the apparent personality of the applicant. Does your business require employees to work long hours Does that applicant always seem to be home during the day Comparing what you need and what the applicant can provide is one way you can bring the two pieces of information together.
You want to use social media to win candidates, so you have to make your social media engaging. Clearly promoting your company’s culture will likely attract employees who would be a good cultural fit. Use the other resources and articles here at Mighty Recruiter to learn more hiring and business-improvement tips.