Social media has been a game-changer for many hiring companies.
Recruitment agents increasingly appear to have lost control of their little black books as professionals after new jobs and companies looking for fresh candidate pools start to make the most of online channels such as LinkedIn, Viadeo, Xing and Twitter.
This week, news also came to light that Facebook could be setting up a jobs board, something that could potentially give HR professionals and internal recruiters a reason to smile. With a network of more than 901 million people, the opportunities that it could offer would appear to be endless.
The idea is that, if social media is used effectively as part of your recruitment strategy, it should enable you to identify, engage and entice possible job candidates as well as cut recruitment spend – if the applicant accepts your offer that is.
But unfortunately, simply finding contenders will not necessarily guarantee you a new hire, not least because their candidate experience could put them off you as an employer.
Hiring the best
You may think: “Yeah, but it’s a recession and I’m seeing so many applications that it doesn’t matter.” But do you really want your company to be seen as unattractive or mediocre?
As Steve Jobs, late chief executive of Apple, famously said in a book entitled ‘In The Company of Giants’: “Hiring the best is your most important task” – and clearly Apple knows a thing or two about that.
So if you really want to attract the best, which includes those people who may not be actively looking to change jobs at the moment, it is essential to step back and evaluate your entire recruitment process.
Look at what you are saying and doing from the very first moment that you engage with someone right through until you make them an offer. Could you be turning them off? Social media provides a channel for people to express their frustrations – and tends to amplify them.
For instance, it’s always possible to see lots of complaints on Twitter about poor applicant tracking systems – and worse. What might they saying about your firm? What top candidates could you be missing out on?
While there are countless things that can be done to improve the candidate experience and cut your recruitment costs at the same time, here are my top three tips:
1. Optimise your web site
If you create a social media buzz, what happens when applicants land on your web site? What does it say about your company? What does your job application system look like? How do people feel about the experience?
It is vital to make your application process as simple and accessible as possible. A good example of how to do this is the Sodexo USA careers blog, in which recruiters at the food and facilities management services provider offer job seekers advice and ensure that their posts have a warm feel.
Another increasingly important consideration, however, is mobile access. Due to rapid smart phone adoption, more people started surfing the web using mobile phones than PCs this year.
Therefore, if you send an email that includes a job link, an important question to ask is whether candidates can open it and apply for the vacancy easily using their mobile?
In other words, does your web site support mobile access and is it easy to navigate using such devices? If you have the budget, it may also be worth supporting tablet users too.
While mobile users may currently be unable to add Microsoft Word or PDF documents automatically to their job applications, one way to help them get around this situation is to use functionality such as Apply by LinkedIn.
The software program, which is employed by Quest Search & Selection enables candidates to send their existing LinkedIn profile directly to the company’s applicant tracking system simply and effectively.
But adding short videos to your web or career site applicants or even YouTube can also prove appealing to applicants. It enables them to gain an insight into your company, hear from your employees and get a feel for what it’s like to work there in a quick-and-easy to digest format.
2. Ensure your communication is effective
The idea that recruiters can literally make or break a company may be controversial, but it’s true as they act as gatekeepers. Every employee that an applicant meets during the recruitment process must also be aware of how and what they communicate as well as how they come across, however.
As a result, ensure that both you and your colleagues:
- Show applicants that you’re knowledgeable about the business by sharing information such as key business drivers, for example. They’ll hear your confidence and feel more inclined to take part in an interview.
- Make it clear that you’re excited about the new job opportunity. If you’re not, you may need to work more closely with the business and find out more about the position.
- Keep in touch in candidates. Lack of feedback is the number one gripe from job seekers. How did you feel the last time that someone didn’t bother to come back to you – and, worse still, who did you tell about the experience?
- Partner effectively with recruitment agents. If you use them, it makes sense to get your money’s worth. Bring them in, let them talk to the business and you’ll soon see better results.
3. Be open and honest
Job seekers are increasingly going online and looking to social media to help them form their opinions of potential employers before making a decision. Therefore, ensure that your company is open and honest in both an online and physical sense.
Consider your own experiences as an interviewee – did you prefer organisations that allowed you to look around the office and speak to the team or those that whisked you through corridors full of closed doors as if they were hiding something?
How did both experiences make you feel and which one employer would you be more inclined to go for?
Katrina Collier is founder and director of social recruitment training and consultancy provider, Winning Impression.
