Article: Social Hiring - Think like a marketer, act like a hunter

Talent Acquisition

Social Hiring - Think like a marketer, act like a hunter

Recruitment through social media requires a holistic approach and a long-term strategy
Social Hiring - Think like a marketer, act like a hunter
 

Social hiring is not a quick-fix solution — it needs long-term strategic investment of effort, time and trust

 

I recently read a report which said “HR is the new marketing” and “Candidates are becoming consumers.” These terms definitely show the level of transformation and disruption recruitment is undergoing. Recruiters’ responsibilities are not limited to filtering and assessing talent any more: They must also attract and sell the opportunity. In a highly demanding market, a post-and-pray recruiting approach does not work — you have to ‘source and spray’. The power of digital is one of the influential reasons behind this change. Does it lead a recruiter to think like a marketer and act as a salesperson too?

Pillars of social recruiting. Bringing candidates in through recruitment has become a two-way process in today’s times. It’s not just sufficient for recruiters to source: they need to be able to attract and engage them for longer periods. Social media empowers them to identify, connect and influence the candidate’s decision to consider the company as a prospective employer. Social recruiting, therefore, is more than posting jobs and pictures: It is about engaging your audience by leveraging your employer brand. Recruiters need to embrace marketing techniques by using social to proactively listen and engage talent. Recruiters are one of the biggest brand ambassadors! Branding, engagement and sourcing are the three strong pillars of social recruiting.

Competencies for modern recruiters. Technology and tools have surely created a strong impact on the way by which recruiters engage their candidates. However, you don’t need to be a tech geek to be a modern recruiter. It is critical for recruiters to learn marketing, branding and sales techniques to get the best of the talent out there. Also, with the emergence of Big Data and social, understanding the power of analytics has become extremely important. Are you able to make sense out of the talent data? Think beyond posting some pictures and running contests. Think like a marketer to understand the pulse of your customers and use innovative ways like gamification. Enough case studies like #CoolestInterviewEver or #TechChallenge are present in the market. Be bold and try new tools in the market like TalentBin, SocialCV, Entelo and so on. Branding, value proposition and analytics are the buzzwords when it comes to effectively leveraging social media.

Make social recruiting strategic and long term. If you are not embracing social as part of your talent strategy, you are missing a great opportunity. Social is a must-have for any recruiting plan. Candidates are looking at the hiring manager’s profile to make a decision about joining. It’s a two way selection process in today’s times. How is your social presence? Are you equipped to monitor and listen to your target talent on social? It is important to have a game plan about having fruitful conversations with your talent today if you want to have a personal connect. A new breed of recruiters who trust and are passionate about social will be change-makers in the recruitment industry. Are you one of them?

Tracking and measuring your success. If you are looking for fast food, social recruiting is not healthy for you. Social is not a quick-fix or short-term tool. It needs long-term strategic investment of effort, time and trust. Recruiters need to be patient and persistent about their approach. Social hiring is an investment, not expenditure. Most of the recruiting leaders fail to capture the right essence of social recruiting: They treat it as just another channel to get more hires. It is definitely a channel, but it can influence all the other channels positively. The measurement and success metrics needs to relate this as well. It cannot be just about the number of candidates attracted or hired but should also talk about traffic on careers site, brand scores, engagement metrics, sentiment analysis, number of queries resolved and so on.

To conclude, I would only say to recruiters: Think as a marketer, act as a hunter but behave as a human.

Read full story

Topics: Talent Acquisition, #Jobs, #TechHR2015, #Social Media

Did you find this story helpful?

Author

QUICK POLL

How do you envision AI transforming your work?