Recruiters are pretty social beings by nature. Good thing that, because being social is a big part of the job. Client meetings, candidate coffee dates and industry events; it really is just another day at (or out of) the office. Recruiters connect people with opportunities and to do this, they rely on their solid network which they build and fine-tune over time, to the highest quality.
It goes without saying social recruiting is the flashiest new talent acquisition method of the 21st century. When your internal rating, size of a your income or success of your team is at the mercy of unpredictable human elements and other variables outside of your control, it’s important to stay abreast of online candidate trends and get ahead of the game where you can. Recruiters have to give themselves every chance at attracting as much of the best possible talent into their people pool, and that means utilising social media properly.
We know LinkedIn is a huge resource for recruiters, employers and employees alike. Anyone who is anyone should really be on there, after all, it is the professional networking platform of our time with 400+ million members worldwide. What a talent hotspot! But researching people and sending in mails or random invitations to connect is not all there is. There are a number of other ways to start recruiting socially.
Thanks to Betterteam for creating the below infographic to showcase what’s it’s all about.
It starts with unfilled positions
Did you know that apparently 60% of employers are worried about empty chairs and staff shortages? Struggling to find the right talent is a huge concern for many businesses, and subsequently recruiters, who attempt to find the right people on their behalf. The avergage time to hire is now tipped at 27 days – quite a long time when you consider most employers say they needed their next hire to start “yesterday”.
Failing to find good, available staff not only creates stress, but burns through money too. It’s believed 48% of CEOs have said talent acquisition inefficiency costs them financially. Time is of the essence!!
Add in some candidate competition
The talent shortage is a huge problem for some companies, and recruiters agree that more and more candidates are being shown and won-over by various different roles at any one given time; 67% of them say the fight for talent will only get harder! It just reiterates the point that filling more jobs requires tapping into more potential candidate platforms.
Our #londontoparis #champions made it in one piece. Amazing effort! @SSChospices #donate now https://t.co/BX7IDwiKoa pic.twitter.com/fveiPJVQ8m
— Investigo (@InvestigoLtd) May 9, 2016
Enter social media
Hiring managers sing its praise: 80% have said social helped them find passive candidates, and 70% have said it’s helped them make successful hire. On top of this, apparently 89% of companies plan to recruit using social media! They are cottoning on, it seems!
Time to step up your game
Here are some tips to get started on your social recruitment regime:
- Hold weekly Q & A sessions on Periscope to inform & engage candidates
- #Hashtags on Twitter: Use a mix of branded ones & job-related words to maximum exposure
- Update your LinkedIn profile opener to let people know you’re hiring, without them even having to click!
- Use Facebook audience insights to drive your posting strategy
- Use Instagram & Twitter to showcase the fun side of your company, not just live roles
You can also check out these other posts on employee advocacy and social selling for extra tips.
Top image: Shutterstock
