Recruiting Employees with Social Networking
Move over, Monster. This has been a breakout year for recruiting with social networking. More businesses than ever are using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and other social networking methods to find top talent.
According to Jobvite’s June 2010 Social Recruiting Survey, 83 percent of employers will recruit with social networks this year, 80 percent will review social profiles during the hiring process, and 36 percent will spend less money on job boards.
Businesses still use traditional job boards such as Monster and Craigslist, but these sites are losing traction as savvy employers realize the benefits of social recruiting. An increasing number now tweet openings and mine employees’ friend lists for leads to valuable candidates, often saving money and time in the process.
“A job board merely tells a description of the job,” says Andy O’Dower, 29-year-old co-founder of BeyondCredentials.com in Chicago. Social networks, by comparison, let you engage recruits like never before and get to know potential new hires more thoroughly. It’s a successful strategy for O’Dower, who uses social tools 90 percent of the time to identify potential employees for his Generation Y online career network. He held a recent contest, for instance, encouraging interns to use Facebook to help the company recruit campus reps. The perfect fit ended up being a Facebook “friend of a friend.”
As social networking becomes ubiquitous as a business tool, tapping into social networks to identify and recruit top candidates is an increasingly important strategy. The following considerations will help you broaden your approach to talent acquisition and prevent accidental legal missteps.
Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter?
Recruiting across social networks isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach. “Each site is different and caters to a different clientele,” says Sharlyn Lauby, a social recruiting expert, blogger, and president of Internal Talent Management Group Inc. in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Generally speaking, younger candidates and recent grads tend to use Facebook. “We have the most luck with Facebook,” says O’Dower. “[It’s] great for social people: interns or employees [in] sales.”
Reaching the vast talent pool on Facebook can happen in a variety of ways, including posting job openings on your Fan page, sponsoring Facebook ads to advertise openings (the “Like” feature widens your reach), and, like O’Dower, asking employees to share openings with friends.
Twitter, meanwhile, attracts social media enthusiasts; companies looking to fill social media positions commonly broadcast openings on Twitter. It’s also a good option if you need someone in a pinch. A simple message can be retweeted to an exponential number of followers and deliver responses within minutes. (Of course, your success rate hinges on having built up a strong following.) Early insights can be drawn from how well candidates use the platform to network.
One of LinkedIn’s strengths is identifying strong contenders through keyword searches, for specific skills, universities, degrees, and even experience working for top companies in your industry. According to Anderson Analytics, 56 percent of LinkedIn users are experienced professionals dubbed “individual contributors,” 16 percent work at management level, and 28 percent have attained director/vice president level or higher. You can advertise job openings on LinkedIn by paying $195 per posting for 30 days. It could be a worthy investment if you’re looking to acquire higher-level candidates.
Outsourcing the social recruiting function to an outside firm is an option, but it can be prohibitively expensive for small businesses. Appirio and Jobvite, two leaders in the space, offer comprehensive hiring solutions on a software-as-a-service platform.
Corporate Branding
Any serious social recruiting strategy involves managing an engaging Facebook Fan page or LinkedIn Group and interacting regularly with Twitter followers. “This is all part of building an employment brand that will help you generate a talent pipeline down the road, saving you a ton of money,” says O’Dower.
Strengthen your social networking identity with informative videos, photos, news, updates, information about your corporate culture, employee feedback, and more. In other words, position your company as an exciting place to work. For an example of what works, check out Deloitte’s Facebook page.
Legal Considerations
As great as social recruiting sounds, ignoring important legalities can land your business in hot water. Megan Ruwe, an associate at Winthrop & Weinstine P.A. in Minneapolis, warns hiring managers to minimize discrimination risks and “proceed with caution” when perusing the photos and group affiliations of job candidates. “We recommend that employers be consistent with regard to Internet searches,” she says. “If an employer is going to conduct an Internet search for one applicant, it should do so for all.”
Another murky area: deciding not to hire someone based on negative information uncovered while researching a person’s social networking activity. Ruwe mentions an instance where a candidate lost out on several job opportunities because a different person with the same name had published some politically charged blog posts. “To avoid such misunderstandings,” she says, “employers should verify any information on the Internet that is used to determine whether to make a job offer to an applicant.”
Charlotte Jensen is an internationally published journalist who specializes in business topics.
