It’s okay if you’re not social media recruiting
Social recruiting is the future. Facebook with it 200 squillion members. Linkedin has buckets of them too. Shouldn’t you be social recruiting too?
Using social media to recruit is becoming an increasingly common (and much-hyped) method of recruiting. There are many examples where companies have successfully recruited using social media. And cases where, in many ways, social recruiting may well be the best method of recruiting.
But let’s take a step back for a moment and look at the reality of recruiting. For those of us involved in the online world, we sometimes forget what it is like in the real world. At the recent Birmingham Digital City conference, for example, it was reported that 40% of companies in the West Midlands were not online in any shape or form. So you can forget about a social recruiting strategy there. But these companies are still recruiting. They fill jobs without Facebook and Twitter, or the internet.
You don’t have to be an online genius to fill a job. Sure, it’s exciting to think that you were the first company to have a job interview in Second Life or World of Warcraft. But did you fill any jobs? If you have a job vacancy in your company think carefully about how you are going to fill it.
Go back to basics. Is this a role that can be filled from a jobboard? Or a radio ad? Or, God forbid, a print trade ad? Or a classified in the local freesheet? Or even a sticky card thumb-tacked on the noticeboard down the local Tesco? What about a footer note on your company signatures? Or a referral programme for your own staff, friends, colleagues and even competitors?
Sure, it’s not sexy: but does it work? If you are already filling jobs with good people, do exactly what you are doing and continue to do exactly what you are doing. Your recruiting channel should be decided upon by your recruiting needs and your recruiting resources. It’s okay, if you’re not social media recruiting.
Posted: February 18th, 2010 under social media recruitment.
Tags: facebook, social media recruiting, social media recruitment, Tesco, twitter
Comments
Comment from WJS
Time February 19, 2010 at 12:30 pm
If one follows the debate amongst social media experts one finds that, for all the effort, thought, conceptualising and cost, the evidence and ROI is still vague. The best brains are still asking each other does it work.
So for the average employer, it’ll remain a largely ad hoc arrangement. Anything larger requires significant resource – be that resource time or money spent on social media experts.
Undoubtedly, there will be the killer app that makes social media a viable recruitment and sourcing option. And even then, I don’t think job boards will be dead for quite some time after.
Comment from Alconcalcia
Time February 18, 2010 at 7:25 pm
I tend to agree. There are many ways to skin a cat, Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook et al are just new ones, but by no means widely tried and tested. Cast enough bread on the water and you’ll get a bite, but for anyone to suggest for instance that the job board is dead and that twitter will be the world’s bestest and largest job board is, for the time being at least, purely wishful thinking.
As you rightly point out, there are many mediums available to the employers that have been around for years and it takes a lot more thought than just shoving a job on twitter and waiting for the world to get in touch. The quality of the message is as important as the media.
I see far too many cut and pasted job descriptions out there on the web. Do recruiters honestly expect to get a good response from such poorly thought through fayre? Maybe they do, and maybe that’s why they are shouting about how current methods are dying and how social media is the next big thing. They’ll soon discover though that if you post copy that doesn’t sell the role, it doesn’t matter where you put it, you’ll still get the same poor quality response.