In this months magazine our big debate is "Can you use Social Media to recruit?" The comments are below:
“You can use social media to recruit however; if you use one medium in any recruiting strategy you limit the opportunity of success. First you need to think - who am I looking for, where are they likely to be? I would recommend that you use it to support and strengthen your overall recruitment strategy where relevant. Social media can be a useful tool for employers to find background information on a potential candidate – for example, understanding their interests, who they engage with online and their general personality.”
David Henry, VP of Marketing for Monster UK & Ireland
Not only can you use social media to recruit, but you must. Today’s candidate spends hours curating the world according to their interests via social platforms; your brand can become a part of that world. Social media helps you create a talent community where candidates, employees, and fans can come together to discuss your message and learn about and share your careers. Without a social recruiting strategy, you pass up access to candidates who are a “best-fit” for your company culture and are most likely to apply for your open positions.
Stéphane Le Viet, CEO Work4 Labs
"With its ability to spread information quickly and efficiently, social media is now a key tool for any serious recruiter. In fact, the stats from the US are pretty startling, so the short answer is an unequivocal 'yes'!. Social media accounts for 16% of all hires in the US and one in six people claim to have got their job through Facebook alone. 80% of employers are using social media to find people for jobs, 65% of US companies have made successful hires using social media and 55% of companies plan to increase their social recruitment budget."
James Uffindell, CEO of Jobbounties.com
Today social networks form a major platform from which recruiters source and interact with prospective candidates. But internal hiring managers are missing a trick when it comes to using social media to recognise and optimise the talent already in their organisations. Talent management software, which incorporates social media functionality, can help organisations to better understand their workforces through social collaboration and learning. By encouraging employees to share content and expertise with each other, companies will know which internal candidates are best qualified to fill vacancies during recruitment drives, thereby narrowing the gap between social networking and talent management.
Nicholas Roi, MD of SilkRoad UK
“If you’re not using social media to recruit then you’re missing out on thousands of potential candidates. The proper management of social networks is essential if recruiters want to extract as much value from them as possible. In order to reduce the amount of time-consuming admin involved, recruiters should use tools that enable automatic reposting on multiple networks, passive candidate identification, and content sharing – after all, recruiters that treat the networks like job boards won’t attract the best candidates – it’s necessary to engage an audience with interesting content.”
Peter Linas, International Managing Director of Bullhorn
“By building useful content at every available online touchpoint between client and candidate alike, the savvy recruiter can circumvent exorbitant CPC’s and ultimately engender an engaged community that is ripe for referral. Agencies that use social media to communicate vertical specific information or market snapshots will be viewed as a resource of genuine value and by offering content beyond a simple branding exercise will see their reputation enhanced. So, yes, you can use social media to recruit, but it is about using the right platform to deliver useful and relevant content for the candidates you are trying to attract.”
