A recruitment marketing strategy to attract passive candidates cannot leave social media out of the equation.
The hunt for talented recruits in a tight job market is getting more intense by the day. As new generations of digital natives enter the workforce, the traditional, so-called “spray and pray” recruitment strategies are no longer effective in attracting talented employees to an organisation. The reason being that these methods only focus on the small and limited active pool of potential candidates, not giving organisations access to the highly sought-after talent that may be present in the semi-passive and passive candidate pools.
In the quest to find these candidates faster and cheaper, new talent sourcing tools have emerged through digital and social media. With the exponential growth in social media users, recruitment marketing techniques were developed in order to identify, attract and recruit only the top talent. In fact, Glassdoor found that 79% of all job seekers use social media to advance their career opportunities, making it a goldmine of talented and diverse candidates. This means that social media recruiting through employee advocacy and referrals could allow organisations to tap into brand new spheres of talent- previously unavailable to recruiters.
The merits of using social media as a recruiting tool are many, but here’s a few-
1) Boosts Visibility
With millions of internet users on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc. the chances of your ideal candidate being a social media user is very high. By simply posting job adverts online will increase the visibility of your open positions to a huge number of qualified candidates.
Given that linkedin is by far the most popular professional networking tool, actively used by millennials and Gen X demographic as a job hunting platform, it should be at the top of your list, but don’t just restrict yourself to Linkedin. If you are serious about extending your reach to a variety of different people, consider posting your vacancies on a variety of platforms, including but not limited to-
- Google+
You can even get creative with Pinterest and Snapchat. Being active on social media not only increases your organisation’s visibility, but also draws back the corporate curtain to build an emotional connection with your candidates, giving them a rare glimpse into your workplace culture.
2) Saves on Recruiting Costs
The search for talent is an expensive endeavour, especially when your recruitment marketing services are rooted in omni-channel marketing tactics. However, creating a social media account is completely free and investing in social ads is cheaper as they are available for any budget. Remember that recruitment costs via social media is almost, always lower than those of other methods.
According to RecruitLoop, a single Facebook ad can receive over twice the visibility of a classified ad on a job board. In fact, the average Facebook ad costs $0.64 per click, making it affordable for businesses of any size. These ad campaigns can also be easily modified; if you aren’t getting the results you want. As a result, the value you get from the hires via social media recruiting makes it a low-hanging fruit.
3) Opens the Door to Passive Talent
A whopping 73% of the talent pool falls under passive job seekers, making it your responsibility to find and encourage the best talent to join your company, instead of having it the other way round. Talent-both active and passive, resides on social media, allowing you to interact with them organically by engaging with their social pages.
If you have an attractive social media presence, a passive candidate might consider changing their current job when they come across your interesting content or job ad online. For e.g.- A message targeted at Pinterest employees read- “Feeling pinned down?” or “Are you looking for a little Pinspiration?”. “This place driving you mad?” asked another clever riff aimed at Uber workers.
Passive talent are always attracted to organisations with employment brands, so hire a social media expert or avail the services of a recruitment marketing agency to get it noticed. Even if they have no current interest, you can begin building relationships with them before they decide to look for a new job. Social media is just a means to get under their radar.
4) Better Candidate Screening
It’s an open secret that companies use social media to perform background checks on potential employees before hiring them. On receiving an attractive resume and clearing through the well-rehearsed formal interview rounds, the next logical step is to do a little research on the person they are about to hire.
Since, many people use social media as a free space to express their frustrations, talk about their causes and share the experiences they go through in their daily lives, using it as a screening tool gives employers an insight into the applicant’s personality, interests, goals and more importantly what they can expect once they are hired to work. However, it’s important to take anything you see on an applicant’s online profile with a pinch of salt as it’s highly unlikely to be an accurate reflection of the way they’ll behave professionally.
5) Shorter Hiring Cycles
Information travels at a blazing speed online. You can easily roll out a job description on your corporate website and employees can circulate the link on various social networking sites. Thereafter, job candidates and recruiters can communicate with each other in a much faster, easier and less formal way through direct messaging.
The acceptance rates to your online job posts are much higher among applicants who share common interests, values or work styles with your company or hiring manager, quickly filling vacancies and lowering the time-to-hire considerably. Through social media, it becomes paramount for both the parties (job seekers and recruiters) to act quickly since both might have multiple options to choose from.
Nowadays, connecting to top talent is about leveraging all kinds of networks especially social media which is a great match for today’s job seekers. It’s a boon for employers as well, as it helps them formulate relevant hiring strategies that ease out talent hunt and stable the employer brand. Picking through the dense online tapestry may be daunting but you can always outsource the process to inbound recruitment agencies that meet your company’s specific needs.