Are you utilizing the power of social media as a part of your hiring process? If you’re not, you’re in the minority. According to a 2017 study by Career Builder, 70% of all companies are now using social media as a hiring tool.
The HR professionals who use only the job sites might see this as surreal, but social media has become a valuable ally in the search for a perfect employee.
Every professional is present on at least one network, so the employees can use the power of different websites to gather more data and make clearer choices. In this article, we will explore the benefits of social media for your recruitment process, and also the reasons behind it.
A change in tradition
Why do we see a rise in social media utilization for professional purposes? The hiring process is always a daunting task for the HR department. Instead of going through a thousand resumes in a short period, social media can be used to both filter and attract potential employees.
Before even meeting the candidate, you are getting a chance to virtually meet them and have a general outlook on who they are. With this evaluation process, you will be able to find the right (wo)man for the job. Within this process, we encounter two pillars every company’s social media use – promotion and attraction.
Attract and promote to facilitate
Let’s discuss promotion first.
A company needs to have a marketing campaign, even for a job opening. But why? Simple mathematics dictate that a hiring process is game of chance. Thus, the more the people apply for the job, the higher the chances of finding the perfect employee.
With increased probabilities being a determining factor, more and more companies choose to advertise job openings on social media.
FrankiNaylor, an HR and OD expert at EssayOnTime, concurs. “When you put statistics aside, social media is a guarantee that a potential candidate is tech-literate. By publishing a job opening in enclosed circles on social media, you will be sure that candidates are familiar with the ethos of that particular line of work. Such a strategy is all about increasing your margin of error.”
Attraction is equally important. Promoting a job on social media ensures the right candidates applying, as well as getting more applications per opening. However, your company has to have a previously established online presence.
By being previously known to your candidates, the chances of them applying will be much higher. For what reason? The familiarity factor, of course. Also, a strong online presence is paramount.
Finding behavioral traits
Now that we’ve covered the importance of using social media for recruitment, it’s time to cover the benefits. Social media profiles are like expanded personality charts for some people.
People post there in staggering quantities, so you can find a lot about them. After receiving a CV with a link to someone’s Facebook or Instagram profile, you can easily find out more about the person.
Making a conclusion about behavioral patterns is easy. To be sure about a potential candidate, many companies use the assistance of a psychologist, to notice patterns.
Hiring a psychologist for this may seem a bit extreme, but social media posts are an excellent reflection of an individual’s place within society. Reactions, opinion, and habits can be easily correlated to someone’s response to professional challenges.
Social media can be a massive resume library
Not many employers think of it this way, but it’s true. Aside from LinkedIn being professionally oriented, other social media websites can serve as “boot camps” for candidates.
For artistic purposes, this trend has been growing for years. On websites such as Tumblr, Instagram, Deviant Art and other, people post their work.
Finding the right graphic designer for your company can be accomplished by scrolling through someone’s Instagram profile. Using this strategy on Instagram is especially useful in urgent situations.
By approaching an individual through their social media profile, you can establish an immediate connection. Reddit, with its hybrid social media-creation form, is an interesting source of recruits. Writing samples, previews and valuable information can be found within the site’s premises.
Targeted recruiting is also important
Even though a large outreach and work examples are instrumental in recruiting, the focus is also needed. For lower-level positions and contract work, immediate contact and general recruitment are the ideal choices.
A conundrum arises when there a need for an experienced upper-level employee. To ensure you are chasing after the right candidate, use targeted recruiting.
LinkedIn is the safest choice for this particular task, as it uses a myriad of filters to find the right person. Ever since focused recruiting became a staple of every new recruitment period, the application-to-hire ration has been much more balanced.
Utilizing LinkedIn with other social networks, provides you the width and focus to your search.
Encouraging your employees
The saying “satisfaction is the best advertisement” isn’t without reason. Truly satisfied employees, who have had an amazing experience with you, aren’t just your associates.
The employees can be your best ad if you use social media smartly.You can urge them to share their experience and shoot testimony video. The content that you prepare will drastically increase the success rate of your search for new employees.
Enlisting people working for you to express themselves adds a human factor to your company. People skimming over your employees’ posts will stop for a second. After watching the video or reading the text, they will feel like they’re being adopted into a family, not hired into a company.
From the very start, this creates a warm and pleasant atmosphere. The benefits of such a state on general productivity are well known and recorded.
The bottom line
Social media doesn’t only give you the width of choice, but it also allows you to focus your search. By utilizing LinkedIn, you can surely find the right upper-level candidate for your empty position. Implementing thorough behavior analysis through available data gets the best possible results from your search. The work samples on various social media sites offers you an estimate of a future employee’s performance can be strikingly precise.
Jacob Dillon is a professional writer and distinctive journalist from Sydney. Being passionate about what he does, Jacob likes to discuss stirring events as well as express his opinion about technological advancements and evolution of society.