The average individual today has easy access to information and options, which enables them to make more informed choices when they are buying, complaining, and even getting hired. With so many diverse campaigns, different skill sets, knowledge of latest technologies and seasonal trends to meet, recruiting the right people is key. Article from Joanne Regan-Iles, Director of Human Resources, EMEA – Sitel, tells how social recruitment is playing a big part.

Like the vast majority of recruiters (94 percent according to a recent survey by Jobvite) you’re probably already using, or are considering using, social media to reach out to potential candidates. When it works well, recruitment is all about making the perfect match between candidate, role, and company. The internet and social media bring greater transparency to recruitment, enabling companies and candidates to not only find one another, but find out about one another in greater detail than ever before.

All of which means that, in today’s connected world employers face greater competition for employees with the right attitude and skills. Careful use of these new recruitment channels is required to swing the balance back in your favour.

The benefits of social media
Using social media for recruitment companies can realise cost savings, increase the pool of quality of applicants they can access, and even be able to target specific groups of candidates. As well as enabling you to cast your recruitment net a little wider, some studies suggest that people you recruit via social media are likely to be more forward-thinking, more innovative, and more au fait with technology – qualities that are much in demand in today’s job market.

The benefits of social media recruitment include speed, scale and reach, precision targeting, ability to communicate with different media, and the ability to leverage your current employees to attract future ones. LinkedIn is essentially mandatory for any UK individual in the job market, and for any company that is looking to recruit. Some of the latest recruitment software and services plug directly into candidates’ LinkedIn profiles, eliminating the need to collect and store CVs.

Facebook profiles and Google search histories also give a lot of information about candidates, which is why both of those tech giants are muscling in on the recruitment game with services allowing companies to target candidates based on a whole plethora of criteria including location, experience, salary expectation, educations level, and personal interests.

Facebook has also recently introduced the jobs tab feature that allows companies to post their open roles using the status updater tool on their business page.  Job listings will appear in the new tab and applicants can directly send their personal information via Messenger

Many social media networks have invested in live broadcasting; Facebook Live, Periscope on Twitter, Instagram Live Video and Snapchat Live Stories.  As technology develops and creates better streaming apps, live videos are set to become a big trend for social recruitment.  Live streaming could mean a 360⁰ video of your office, a live Q&A session or a training event. With live streaming, your followers have the chance to get a real feel of your company, this can increase engagement and traffic to your company’s web-site.

Social media means you are always recruiting
It’s important to remember that social media is always a two-way interaction, and often a public one. Just as you can use data collected about individuals to target them (or not), they can easily find out almost everything they ever wanted to know about you, about the jobs you offer, and what it’s like to work at your company.

So while a great web presence is necessary, the starting point is to ensure that the jobs you are offering live up to your descriptions of them, and that you really do offer a great place to work. Your website and social media pages should be a shop window for your brand, your culture, and your current employees.

As all your competitors – and all the other companies hoovering up talent in your catchment areas – are also trying to stand out, anything you can do to catch attention or get your message across might just give you the edge you need. For example, rather than written job descriptions and employee testimonials make video ones. You could record or live stream company events that demonstrate your culture, or even go so far as to install a webcam in the office.

Use your employees
Your greatest secret weapon for attracting employees of the calibre you want could be your existing employees. They all have friends and family and most are likely to be on social media too.

Messages shared from personal accounts (rather than the company’s) tend to reach a much higher percentage of followers. They reportedly get eight times more engagement than content shared by brand channels and are re-shared 25 times more frequently. So providing your employees with materials – images, text, video – to share can significantly boost your reach on social media.

Around 20 percent of Sitel’s employees were referred to us by an existing employee or attracted to us directly as a result of an employee’s promotion of our work place on social media.

Ultimately, a happy and contented workforce will be your most effective tool in recruitment to attract and retain the very best talent for your business. Whether via new age platforms or social media strategies, employee engagement is key to brand advocacy and making your business an employer of choice, not an employer by chance.

www.sitel.com