MightyRecruiterSocial Networking: Are You Ready for Social Recruiting
People turn to social networking sites to share thoughts, ideas, friends and more. Why not share career information Social media has naturally become the ideal launch pad for today’s recruiters. Plus, professional profiles accumulate data just as quickly as do personal and interest pages. Now, with everything going mobile, there’s a lot to know. Here’s how it works for recruiters and employers.
HR Pairs With Social Media
Recruiting is an ever-changing field. Just five years ago, only a small portion of generalists and recruiters even used social networking when looking for candidates. Today, it’s a primary tool for everyone involved in sourcing and hiring. According to the 2015 Global Recruiting Trends Report, online networks are quickly becoming the preferred way to track down qualified candidates. It’s obviously already the preferred way to promote applicants as well. As a result, top talent is much easier to find. It’s done through direct sourcing, which means recruiters have easier access to passive candidates. Here’s a handful of primary discussion topics from the recent Social Recruiting Summit in New York City:
-Planning and implementing social strategies
-Personal branding through social media
-Finding the right platform for your organization
-Measuring the ROI of social recruiting
-Utilizing mobile technology to draw in candidates
-Auditing social recruitment strategies
-The role of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter
Social networking is quickly becoming a recruiting standard rather than an alternative. Smart employers are getting on board.
Develop Your Strategy Before Going Live
It’s important for every business to spend time on a strategy before diving into social networking. It might seem easy to just passively participate, but you really should have a game plan in place the second you go live or begin searching for candidates. The first step is to decide on which platforms you’ll use.
-Professional profiles ïRecruiters use sites like LinkedIn for direct sourcing. Essentially, they’re browsing a network of of job boards and a database for resumes. You can search, investigate, track and contact both passive and active candidates.
-Social profiles ïThese sites play a slightly different role. Facebook, for example, lists millions of jobs through its partnership links, and recruiters use it heavily for branding and referrals.
-Micro blogs ïPlay-by-play platforms like Twitter can be used to promote brands and job openings more subtly. Twitter is an open, multi-purpose network with a lot of sideline activity. It allows for more frequent, and sometimes less formal communication. It’s a good place to showcase your company and publicize hiring without being too salesy.
One thing every HR professional should be aware of is tone. Regardless of where you choose to be present, you need to consider how the community will react to your choice of words. Recruiters can benefit from creating industry discussions, but be careful about how aggressively you portray your company.
Using Information
Professional networking sites can shed a lot of light on a candidate’s skills, experience, education and industry connections. You can then look to platforms like Facebook when evaluating softs skills and cultural fit. On the other hand, some social medial posts raise a ton of red flags. Most recruiters are turned off by sexual references, profanity and any mention of illegal drugs. Even grammatical errors can lower a candidate’s credibility.
Exercise Caution and Good Judgment
With so much information readily available, it’s easy to cross the line, even when doing so is unintentional. Suppose a hiring manger discovers the age or relationship status of a particular candidate from a social networking site. Generally, such information should have no affect on hiring decisions. Furthermore, everything on the Internet is 100 percent accurate, and you should always try to verify content.
Companies should be very careful when dealing with personal and professional information about their candidate pools. Herein lies another fine line between what is and isn’t relevant to the job. Likewise, managers rarely have good reason to disqualify an applicant based on information from a social networking post. On the other hand, it’s hard to withhold judgment when you uncover indecent photos that candidates willingly display online. So what should mangers consider and what should they ignore
However you decide to screen your candidates, keep an open mind and be as throughout as possible. Investigate profiles and Google names and email addresses. Do your research, especially if you’re not planning on doing a drug screen or background check. When in doubt, take a holistic approach to the information and use your best judgment,
As you develop your social network strategy and begin sourcing candidates, take advantage of the valuable resources here at Mighty Recruiter.