5 Ways To Leverage Social Media For Recruitment Managers

The recruitment industry has transformed significantly in the past few years and with so many businesses in the social space, the war for talent is even fiercer. It is therefore essential that HR Managers leverage social networks effectively to keep up with the competition. Here we detail the top 4 ways social media has changed recruitment, and the top 5 ways recruitment managers can leverage this.

How has social media changed HR?

1. Jobseekers have personal and professional profiles available online

Nowadays, people generally have their personal and professional profiles available on social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Jobscience highlights that 14.4 million people used social media in their job search in the year 2011, and the number is steadily increasing. Jobvite’s 2013 Social Recruitment Survey finds that 94% of companies already use social recruitment in 2013. Due to this, more businesses are leveraging social networks in their recruitment activities. 

2. HR Managers can review these profiles anywhere and anytime

Recruiters can review all job seekers’ personal and professional profiles anytime and anywhere using their mobile phones. 79% of hiring managers and job recruiters review applicants’ online information. This information is seriously considered as 1 in 3 employers have rejected applicants based on something they found online. Social media allows recruiters to filter for high quality candidates, which has helped businesses see a 49% increase in the quality of their candidates.

3. HR Managers can contact a candidate in any corner of the world

With the endless reach of social media, recruiters can now view profiles of candidates living on the other side of the world, and contact them with the click of a button. Taking the candidate further on the recruitment process will need supporting communication tools such as Skype, but it is important to note that the reach social media gives recruiters is invaluable and can increase the opportunity for finding high quality candidates. Jobvite found that social media helped employers increase candidate quantity by 43%.

4. Recruitment is more efficient and more effective

With social media, recruiters can review and contact job seekers about a role in a matter of minutes. In addition, today’s job seekers are always online and receive messages instantly. This significantly reduces recruitment time. Jobvite notes that social recruiting improved time to hire by 33%. In addition, social networks contributed to 61% of total hires and 43% of social media hires stay over three years in a company.

Social media has essentially unleashed the biggest change in recruitment since job search engines, making recruitment faster, more efficient and more effective. It is therefore not surprising that businesses plan to invest more in social recruiting over this financial year.

However, with so many businesses in the social space, the war for talent is imminent. It is therefore more prudent that HR Managers leverage social networks effectively to keep up with the competition.

5 Ways to Ensure Effective Social Recruiting

1. Build a social media recruitment strategy that is centred around your target candidates. Identify their demographic, understand their online behaviour and determine the social networks they frequent.

2. Build a strong social media presence on these social networks. Create a company profile that conveys the culture of the company.

3. Join specific interest groups to identify candidates that fit within your criteria. You can also join conversations within these groups to be visible to your candidates.

4. Use the profiles on these social networks to promote vacancies. Be sure to post updates at a time when your target audience is online. Posts to promote a job should always link to the company’s careers page to allow job seekers to apply immediately.

5. Be proactive, not reactive. If there is one key action that HR Managers need to take to ensure the effectiveness of social media recruiting, it is to be proactive in finding the best candidate for the business. Look through the profiles of people within a specific interest group to identify any standout candidates and contact them before your competitor does.

Refer to our Social Media White Paper to understand how social networks have affected HR.