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Streamlining Recruiting? Use Social!

March 3, 2011 by MSI

Even though unemployment in the U.S. still remains at 9 percent, employers continue to experience challenges in finding skilled talent for specific roles and certain industries. Combine the number of unemployed professionals in the U.S. with a statistic I came across recently advising that two-thirds of employed professionals are now open to or actively seeking new employment, and, qualified or not, employers are receiving more resumes than ever before.

I first wrote about the evolution of leveraging social media to what is now officially classified as social recruiting last June. Social recruiting has become an integral tool for corporate recruiters and job seekers, but how can companies today leverage social, yet keep their efforts focused and refined? Using social sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter will provide recruiters with access to their more than 600 million active worldwide users, but how can you develop and implement targeted strategies?

Let’s begin with just that, a strategy. As a recruiting professional today, a true plan needs to be in place with specific objectives tied to your goals and addressing your challenges. For example, a general post on your company’s Facebook page would not assist you in reaching a highly targeted group of potential employees for a highly specialized job posting, but I would recommend the following:

• Design and implement a specific Facebook page, LinkedIn group and/or Twitter feed for the specific department or field. For example, Engineering.
• Seek out and network with other successful social groups targeted to this group of professionals. For example, are there open Facebook groups, blog communities, or even Twitter feeds or hash tags, that this group uses to network and communicate?
• Leverage your existing employees. Individuals are often networked with other like-minded professionals or team members from previous employers, so tapping into the networks of your existing team is a great way to expand your reach, yet remain focused.
• Integrate your efforts with a customer relationship management (CRM) tool. Invest in technology and choose one that has social integration inherent. Don’t get caught up in receiving email resumes and tracking potential candidates via hard copy.

As you launch your plan, continue to refine your efforts based on your results. Keep in mind that social takes time and it will yield results, but it doesn’t happen overnight. Remain open minded and evolve your strategies and your research to stay on top of the most current forums which may yield dividends to you in terms of attracting and hiring top talent.

What have your experiences been thus far in leveraging social to achieve your recruiting goals? Please share.