Could a lot of HR leaders be stuck in the past because they’re bred to follow rules, procedures and SOPs, especially when it comes to recruitment? Are they still shuffling through stacks of CVs or at best going through emails one by one organized in folders pertaining to department functions? Enter: Web 2.0 Internet.
If your hiring strategy doesn’t incorporate social media, you could be missing out on the best talent out there!
Technology Is Re-shaping the Hiring Process
Digital footprints are happening now. We’re talking about the present – not a change that we’re expecting to see sometime in the near future. LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Google+ are already being used for recruiting so if you’re not there you’re missing out on a big piece of the pie. Mediabistro expects that job postings on Twitter will reach 2 million per month by the end of December 2014 – it’s expected to surpass the currently favored LinkedIn for recruiters. All this means is that technology is reshaping the recruiting world and both job seekers and hunters need to be able to stand out from the crowd.
Some people are really taking the opportunities provided to the next level. The web is now your personal recruitment assistant and there are hundreds of creative job hunters waiting to be a given a chance. People are using Facebook ads to target specific recruiters in specific organizations. One creative, Philppe Dubost, built a CV to look like an Amazon product page and it worked – he got a job and a lot of visibility by using his digital prowess.
Reputation Based Hiring
Reputations work both ways – recruiters are finding top talent and these key people are looking for top organizations to work for. To achieve being perceived as a top organization no longer involves going to job fairs and posting job openings to recruitment websites.
C-Level executives now need to place themselves in the limelight through social media and be seen as interactive thought-leaders. Of course this doesn’t mean that they have to personally tweet all the time – that’s what social media teams are for. But occasionally tossing in words of wisdom is definitely a must.
As for job seekers, it’s about creating a network with smart people by adding thought leaders to social networks and jumping at the opportunity to interact with them.
[box] Let’s face it, it’s almost like stalking. You think about the companies you’d like to work for and find people who work there and are on any social media avenues. Then you follow them and follow them until they say something which you can interact with and get on their radar. It works.[/box]
5 Steps for Recruiters to Use Social Media to Find Talent
If you’re a recruiter looking to get out of the paper CV black hole, here are a few steps you can take to create the required social influence for your organization:
- Get yourself on selected social media depending on where you think your ideal candidates are. Use LinkedIn groups, Twitter lists and Facebook lists to follow people of interest in your industry.
- Get your employees on social media but do so with caution by providing clear guidelines via a Social Media Communication policy.
- Assign champions to the cause – it could be anyone who’s comfortable and responsible with social media. Have them talk about what’s going on in the company under the guidelines of the Communications policy.
- Get your key people online – the chiefs and other thought leaders. Give them helping them to regularly maintain their accounts and keep the content updated.
- And finally – post job openings with relevant hashtags where appropriate to start attracting people who’ve been missing from your team.
Want to know more? Subscribe to my blog (it’s free!) to receive food for thought on the latest happenings in the leadership and HR world.