Last year we explored the idea of the social evolution and its impact on the way we connect with new people. At some point, every company needs to consider the recruitment process. How they achieve a connection with the right applicant goes beyond traditional methods to being known to each individual network organically.
Finding candidates using social networks like Facebook and Twitter is pretty commonplace these days. It’s not unusual to see a tweet in your feed with the #job hashtag followed by “PLS RT!”. We’ve even used this method ourselves. But there’s a lot more to social recruiting than simply posting on your Facebook wall or Tweeting about the gap in your agency (also especially difficult when limited to 140 characters).
Real social recruitment should be about much more than a few hastags and RTs. The phenomenon has not yet hit Australia as hard as it has in the States and elsewhere, (which is surprising really, as many statistics show that Australians are such avid social media users). There are few Australian recruiters finding talent via social media avenues, with the vast majority of hires still coming from other avenues such as online job boards. Before Seek.com there was HR agencies and newspapers.
Now with the mass adoption of social media and the obsession with building online communities, it seems a total waste of creative resources to not marry strategic social media practice with recruitment. With people seemingly stuck in their old recruiting habits, is it possible to craft social recruiting strategies that bud into online communities which eventually blossom into attracting and retaining exactly the candidates your company is looking for? We say, yes it is. In fact, we did exactly that with Citywide in 2011 and will share with you soon some other projects under development as soon as we are able.
Here’s four tips to creating an effective and engaging social recruiting campaign:
1. Research and know your target audience.
A decision is only as good as the intelligence that informs it. You need to know what your community wants to know. Probing for those little epiphanies and nuances is crucial to understanding what makes your target audience tick.
2. Understand current costs.
It is important to understand what it currently costs to hire your employee group. This includes the cost of advertising new positions, cost to hire HR staff, cost to fill roles with temp agency staff whilst you look for new talent.
3. Create an online community.
This is the fun part. You’ve done your research and collated information and now you get to put your findings to work. Bringing in new employees that share values, ambition and knowledge that reflect a company’s overall purpose. It’s about connection through personal experiences. Instead of a static approach, employers can actually engage with the right person by using rich media and current employees to tell the story.
4. Develop employer capacity.
Now that your community is up and running, it’s really important to retain maximum engagement and keep the conversation going. Teach your employees how to pool their skills and resources.
Book a training session with us. We know this stuff.
Contact our Director Engagement, Kate Crawshaw to develop a social recruitment strategy to attract skilled personnel and engage staff, solving critical business issues and building your employer brand.
Image: Wikimedia Commons
