A survey, undertaken by Oilandgaspeople.com, the world’s leading Oil and Gas jobs board, has shown that 82% of employers have looked up potential candidates on social media sites, while some 64% have rejected a job application after viewing a candidate’s social media profile.
The survey found that 88% of recruiters used LinkedIn for candidate recruitment, with 25% using Facebook, 8% using Twitter, and 33% preferring industry-based job boards. 77% of those interviews said the reason for recruiting via social media is that it gives them better access to more candidates, and 33% said it is the most cost-effective way to find candidates, with 41% saying it gave them better insight into whether candidates were suitable.
The survey highlighted Job boards and LinkedIn as the two most important tools to recruiters, with Facebook also making a contribution to a candidate’s profile.
Another notable highlight in the survey includes the fact that 63% of recruiters said that they considered social media as more effective than traditional print ads when advertising jobs.
“Social media is now a powerful recruitment tool for getting the right person in position faster and cheaper than traditional forms of advertising,” explains Kevin Forbes, CEO of Oilandgaspeople.com. “As a leading Job Portal, we have always integrated with social media. Our LinkedIn groups are among the largest on LinkedIn and between LinkedIn and Facebook we are able to market jobs posted on Oil and Gas People to over 1.5 million candidates in the oil and gas industry. That’s over double the reach of our competitors that don’t utilise Social Media. There are reports that highlight how social media is being deployed from anywhere between 30% to 90% of large UK companies.”
Kevin continues: “The Oil and Gas Industry is currently enjoying a small boom and it is becoming increasingly hard to source the right candidates. Being such an innovative industry, it comes as no surprise that recruiters are turning to social media to find top talent.”