Until recently, human resource (HR) professionals used to rely on old-fashioned mediums such as newspapers, advertisements, portals, consultancies, and employee referrals to fulfill vacancies at their respective work places. However now, the role of social media in recruitment has becoming increasingly vital and will replace all the traditional sources of recruitment.
Reasons why we should go with social media recruitment are:
- Number of Users – Due to high number of active users on platforms such as Facebook, Whatsapp, Linkedin and Twitter, they become effective social media recruiting tools.
- Reach & Ease of access- With the popularity of smart phones and fast internet, companies can provide all the necessary information to the potential candidates that can be easily accessed from any part of the world. Information published on social media can be shared easily and thus can assist the employers to find suitable candidates.
- Prompt responses- Studies have suggested that in today’s time, majority of individuals update their social media regularly. The companies can capitalize on this by pushing out content that is interesting so as to initiate prompt responses from the interested individuals. Using traditional tools such as portals and sending mass emails is not as effective as users do not log in as frequently as they as do their social media accounts.
- Low or No Cost: One of the most important benefits of using social media recruitment for HR is that the companies can organically reach out to candidates by posting free jobs on different platforms such as Linkedin, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Although the direct costs are very minimal, the companies may only incur indirect costs in terms of the effort and time invested in the social media recruitment process.
How Social Media Helps in Recruiting:
- Searching Candidatures – Using social media as a strategy for recruitment enables the employers to search for the right kind of candidates by bifurcating the users that best suit the criteria to be fulfilled. The companies can gain access to the talent pool by approaching not only different users but also by posting content relevant pages, communities, and groups.
- Employee Reference Check – As users are very active on social media, the employers can easily conduct background checks of the selected candidates by examining and understanding the different activities on their respective social media platforms. The companies can visit the candidate’s time lines, look at their engagement, asses the type of content they engage with. Platforms like LinkedIn highlight complete professional details of the employees, thus making it easier to understand the skills and connections of the employees along with seeking recommendations from colleagues and seniors.
- Employee Branding- With the changing trends, Human Resource departments of different companies are participating in multiple marketing and promotion activities on social media platforms. Social Media recruiting works both ways as interested candidates are constantly tracking the social media activities of the employers as well to gauge what goes on ‘behind the scenes’ at different companies. The human resources department can increase their branding and communication by regularly uploading photos, videos, blogs etc.
Social media is going to play an essential role in recruitment and with this it is imperative that the human resources professional understand, adapt and utilize these new techniques to hire the right person for the right position at the right time.