The majority of HR directors are failing to use social media for recruitment purposes, with a huge 70% unsure of whether it is effective or not.
A survey of 200 UK HRDs conducted by recruitment consultancy, Robert Half, revealed that a mere three out of 10 were using social networking sites to either source or communicate with potential job candidates.
The study also appeared to indicate that the key reason behind the lack of uptake was uncertainty over whether the channel was of value or not. A huge 70% of respondents said that they were either unsure that social networking sites were effective as a hiring tool or they believed that they were actually ineffective.
Phil Sheridan, Robert Half’s managing director, said: “Social media’s popularity has grown dramatically in recent years and, while many organisations have leveraged it as a successful commercial or employer branding tool, its effectiveness in recruitment has not been realised amongst the majority of organisations.”
As a result, some 63% of those questioned thought it unlikely that candidates’ profiles on social networking sites would eventually replace CVs as a first point of call for information.
Moreover, only one in five said that they ever bothered to check online profiles in order to assess the suitability and/or behaviour of applicants today.
Another area in which technology is continuing to be underexploited, however, is talent analytics.
Top HR priorities
A survey undertaken among 481 HR professionals by talent measurement software and services provider, SHL, found that, while 86% had some kind of process to capture talent analytics data, fewer than half currently used the information to make informed business decisions.
Finding ways to do so had now become one of the top three priorities for the HR department over the year ahead, however.
David Leigh, the firm’s chief executive, said: “Businesses want to understand the bigger picture about the people in their workforce. This goes far beyond productivity – it is a question of understanding what makes employees tick, how to get the best performance from each individual and keeping them engaged.”
The research entitled ‘Global Assessment Trends Report 2012’ also revealed HR professionals were increasingly interested in using behavioural predictors for assessing job candidates before hiring them.
Personality test have now become the second most popular evaluation tool, while job fit and situational judgement tests were also in the top five.
“The data implies that employers are now not only focused on a candidate’s knowledge and skills, but require a well-rounded view of their employees and how they will react and behave in future,” Leigh said.
Another top HR priority, however, was staff engagement and retention, which was cited by 56% of respondents as their top priority for 2012. Nonetheless, a huge 39% had no formal processes in place to try to engage or keep employees, while only 36% saw career development as key in this context.
The fact that interest in this latter area had fallen year-on-year implied that companies were “giving up on these strategies”, Leigh said.
