Use your social media networks to your advantage during recruitment.
Employers are increasingly using social media to source candidates with LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter positioning them as an integral part of recruitment programs.
Even those employers with extensive networks will draw on these social media websites to uncover relevant candidates, or to access and build on the candidate profiles they already have as a part of their process.
Social media is also proving useful in leveraging talent that may be overlooked in a recruitment search process and is relatively cost efficient. Recognising the market for recruitment, some social media companies are now offering specific tools to conduct their searches and advertise roles.
LinkedIn offers access to a broad range of candidates with many employers now including LinkedIn as a candidate identification and screening tool in their searches. While it can prove to be a laborious process building a large network on LinkedIn, increasingly employers are investing the time and resources to do so.
You can identify candidates in a number of different ways on the LinkedIn website:
- Offering invitations to Link In with candidates you are interested in.
- Posting paid job posts for positions you are seeking to fill. The cost per advertisement is minimal and is on the site for thirty days.
- Join groups where you think you will find relevant candidates and then engage in conversation with them.
- Use the network activity box (status box) to get the message out that you are in hiring mode. “Looking for a compliance manager. If you know someone please contact me”
TIP – Although social media websites offer access to candidate networks it is advisable not to take the information posted on these websites as totally accurate. It is important that you make further steps to validate candidate information and only use these websites as a part of your information gathering process
When you identify candidates you should check that they have:
- A complete and coherent profile. You will find that those who have adopted a diligent approach to their profile and have uploaded a photograph may prove more worthy of your attention than those with sketchy details and a sepia image of an egg as their photo
- Been recommended by colleagues, managers and clients with whom they have had dealings
- Connections to other candidates that may be of interest to you and are in LinkedIn groups that may be relevant to your networking focus
The candidates decide who they want connect to and it is not uncommon for invitations to be ignored or refused if the candidate doesn’t want to let someone link to them. If a candidate wants you out of their connections they can also delink you.
TIP – Set up your own corporate LinkedIn page to establish your business presence on the website and use it as a platform for your recruitment activity process.
While Facebook may be helpful in locating industry colleagues, navigating the website searching for candidates can be a marathon effort that can be less than productive. This is often due to them either not having an active Facebook page or not including enough information to identify them with their professional work role.
If you decide to include Facebook in your recruitment process make sure you make the best use of your time by:
- Accessing the Facebook Directory to search for users, groups and relevant applications.
- Post a job in the Facebook marketplace. You are restricted from targeting specific groups however you can add a position description, define the job category, job title and even add your photograph or logo.
- Setting up your own corporate Facebook pages to establish and promote your company and the products/services you offer. You can also use your Facebook pages as a recruitment tool posting jobs that are available in your company.
- Post a Facebook advertisement that will specifically target your audience. You can input a range of key words about the position and the candidates who would be a possible fit for the role. Facebook is able to calculate how many users will fit your criteria narrowing down the universe of relevant talent.
TIP – If you decide to use Facebook consider how you can make best use of the site. Posting an advertisement is a good way to start as it is a cost-effective way of targeting your audience.
Twitter offers a timely and succinct way to communicate with your audience; however you need to take the time to build a following. At a bare minimum you can use the 140 characters to get a message out to your followers who may in turn re-tweet your message to their followers and so on. If you have a role that you are recruiting for then you simply need to keep to a tightly worded message. For example, “looking for a practice manager to work with advisers with HNW clients in Sydney, suit ex-financial planner”.
Twitter has flagged that the 140 character limit will be increased so in time you will be able to provide more information in your Tweets.
To build a following you will need to develop a network of followers who will automatically receive your tweets and you theirs. Your starting point is making contact with colleagues, potential candidates and others in the industry who may be relevant to you in identifying and engaging with candidates. From there you can readily communicate with a growing follower base by:Tweeting on industry issues, posting articles you have read and re-tweeting other’s tweets.
- Keep a watch on followers and those you are following who are active on Twitter reading their tweets which may provide you additional insights in to their opinions and positions on industry and personal issues.
- Market your own events such as conferences you are sponsoring/speaking at or workshops you are running.
- Posting a position you are recruiting
TIP – When using Twitter to help you make a preliminary assessment of a potential candidate you should consider how they conduct themselves when tweeting. Do they have lapses in judgement by tweeting inappropriately? Or are they measured and considered with their personal brand and therefore more likely to be a good brand ambassador as an employee?
Researching Candidates
Social media invites the scrutiny of employers making candidates more visible than ever before. It is now used extensively to gain insights in to candidate’s career history and achievements though websites such as LinkedIn. This information is freely available and may include professional endorsements from colleagues and former employers.
Additional information is accessible through websites such as Facebook where candidates allow access and this may include details of personal interests and photo galleries that can provide further insight in to the candidate.
It has been known for prospective employers to reject candidates due to photos or comments posted by candidates on these websites, or alternatively, when they have posted their own comments or re-posted others comments on Twitter.
While there is a need for candidates to be careful about what they make available on these sites, it is equally important for those seeking information on potential candidates to be cautious about how they access this information. There have been a number of cases where privacy has been breached by those who have gained unauthorised access to personal information available only to family and friends of the person involved and have used this information to make a negative assessment of the person precluding them from a role that they might otherwise have obtained.
The use of social media is a powerful recruitment tool which will provide you with access to a broad range of candidates that you may not have otherwise identified. It is also a valuable tool when reviewing your candidate requirements as you may come across candidates with capabilities and experience that you hadn’t previously considered. Social media is cost efficient, relatively easy to use and has the capacity to identify the best fit candidates for your business.
