The pandemic has made the job search for both the candidate and the recruiter challenging.
Never has a tight labor market had a deluge of resources in the talent search coupled with savvy job seekers. Online recruiting is not new. In fact, in the mid-1990s, the first online job boards changed the way candidates applied for jobs. Goodbye cotton resume paper, and hello to the digital CV.
There's no question that organizations worldwide are searching for talent, and that net is wider than ever with work from home and work from anywhere.
Social Media has become an invaluable tool for the active and passive recruiter, as well as the active and passive job/career seeker.
With the era of digital natives entering the workforce and Millennials rising through the ranks, finding talent will be even more social.
Social recruiting is simply using social media tools to connect, share and engage with potential candidates. Does it work? There's no question. However, the platforms a recruiter versus a candidate use can vary.
83% of job seekers use Facebook as their primary tool to search for a role, while recruiters only use that platform 65%.
One of the best ways to get great candidates is to use your current employee network. Employee referrals are a rich source of potential leads for open positions.
Did you know that if your employees are NOT referring friends to the company, this could be a sign of weak employee engagement?
Before all else, start with your goal and remember that social can inform your entire recruitment process.
Monitoring the social sites of candidates can give you insights into the values and cultural fits of candidates. Before you interview, it's best practice to check the candidate's resume vs. LinkedIn profile. You can gather an incredible amount of insights from open social profiles.
Using the right platforms at the right time is equally important. LinkedIn is a professional social network; however, your employees are most likely using other socials, socially. Be where your candidates are gathering online socially.
Facebook has some incredible groups targeted to specific roles, industries, or regionals that focus on simply sharing and targeting candidates.
Of course, there's the Facebook Job Board and Facebook provides insights into how to effectively post on business pages.
It's important to note that if you have a social presence and are using it to recruit, make sure you're conducting social profile audits.
A social profile audit will ensure that your social brand, by the platform, is consistent with your corporate brand. This is where a candidate can get a sense of the organization, the culture, the vision, and the mission of the organization.
Showing who you are socially to attract candidates is critical in a competitive job market. Culture can be reflected in your social assets, and it is a principal factor for job seekers. Did you know that 69% of job seekers will not consider a company with a weak culture?
Naturally, posting the role on socials, using proper hash-tagging on the posts such as #hiring, and ensuring that the interested candidate has a clear path to connect with you.
LinkedIn has a #hiring badge that can be added to a profile, and that badge automatically creates a free job post.
This is a great way for your network (and your networks, network) to know you are hiring.
Since LinkedIn is a professional network, we will focus our communication on this platform.
Every brand needs a social media strategy, and a recruitment strategy is a part of that overall plan. It's vital to ensure that your recruitment strategy is aligned with your sales and marketing strategy.
One of the biggest challenges that many brands face is an incongruent experience from the brand promise and the job seeker’s experience. Take the time to integrate a social recruiting strategy into your company’s social media strategy. Work together and consider the brand experience.
If you're interested in more resources around social reach, social recruiting, and talent insights take a look at these fantastic resources: