Social media is just the norm no-a-days. Kids grow up communicating through their phones via platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, leaving them prone to be addicted to the sites as they progress into their adult lives.
While there are definitely some questionable characteristics which have us wondering whether social media is such a good idea, there is no doubt that it can be an extremely invaluable tool for Human Resources departments as it can help them to fulfil a myriad of HR duties.
These sites, accompanied by others including Twitter and Instagram just keep reaching milestone after milestone and are still growing, while professional social media sites such as LinkedIn also continue to experience a successful growth story.
In fact, Facebook recently exceeded two billion monthly users – that’s almost a third of the world’s population! Likewise, LinkedIn has around 467 million members who showcase their professional profiles and CVs, and companies all over the globe have their very own accounts allowing them to interact with these users.
When you consider these numbers, it makes perfect sense that HR professionals would be able to use social media platforms to their advantage.
Talent acquisition
Tracking down potential candidates with the right skills and experience for a job role can be a mighty difficult challenge – and the more specific the position is, the harder the task becomes. Social media can play a key role in helping this process along, making it the perfect talent acquisition tool.
Recruitment can be accomplished on a much wider scale through the use of professional social networking platforms such as LinkedIn, providing a more thorough approach than if only using traditional methods to source talent.
Not only is using platforms such as LinkedIn more productive, but it’s also cost-effective and incredibly intuitive as a recruitment tool too. Social media helps HR teams to engage with a wider audience, target a top-quality pool of candidates and improve on the effectiveness of their recruitment efforts.
Traditional recruitment methods often target people who are actively looking for a new job. Social media sites such as LinkedIn, on the other hand, allow recruiters to connect and communicate with a far larger, more diverse set of people who potentially fit the description of the ideal candidate, even if they aren’t looking for anything at the time.
Job vacancies can be posted and advertised on LinkedIn and users can apply directly to the company through the platform. This is great for those hard-to-fill positions as LinkedIn works to ensure the best candidates for a job are made aware of the position and its suitability to the person based on their skills, experience and ability within a chosen industry.
LinkedIn members also have a ‘Jobs’ tab on their profiles, letting them search through available work opportunities.
It’s an intuitive system which really helps HR professionals to manage recruitment in the most efficient and effortless way possible.
People who aren’t even actively looking for something new in the job market can’t help but be informed about interesting available positions in their industry through newsletters from the site or their LinkedIn newsfeed, opening the net wide open for even more opportunities.
Vetting Candidates
Job seekers use social networks to help with their decision making decision-making when it comes to applying for jobs or accepting interviews. HR professionals should be doing the self-same thing to prospective candidates.
Social media provides a modern way to vet candidates as screening applicants through social profiles speeds up the hiring process and provides a better idea about who the candidate is.
This helps to determine whether a candidate will be a good fit for the position and the culture of the business.
If it’s used effectively, social media used as an HR tool can provide an excellent return on investment. This is as a direct result of the lower costs and higher productivity associated with using social media to recruit people.
Not Just a Direct Recruiting Tool
HR professionals can use social media for purposes other than just talent acquisition to gain positive results for their companies in terms of reputation and corporate communication – which, in turn, can also assist with recruitment strategies.
Systems like LinkedIn or Facebook are so closely intertwined into the fabric of our modern digital society (to the point where we carry them around with us all day on our indispensable mobile devices) that many companies are now realising the power of social media and have lost the pre-assumptions that these platforms are nothing more than a distraction to their staff.
The realisation and acceptance of this kind of power means that companies are increasingly appreciating the need to have an active and engaging corporate presence on social media in order to attract top professionals for open roles.
Culture
Displaying the kind of corporate culture that will encourage top candidates to consider working at the company on social media is one of the best ways to attract top talent.
An organisation’s culture plays such an important role in attracting and retaining quality talent. People on the job hunt want to understand the culture of a business before they commit to joining, in order to see whether they will fit in and have the best chance of professional success and happiness.
Communication
Social media is a great communication tool, and many job seekers will look to company pages and profiles on various social media platforms to get a feel for the culture of the business. Communicating the company’s values and culture through social content is an important duty for HR managers to carefully consider and implement.
Social media provides a subtle, yet powerful way in which corporate culture can be displayed publicly. Posts regarding team-building efforts, office gatherings, health and wellness initiatives or performance incentives can give job seekers an understanding of what working for the company will be like.
Creating a team-building hashtag on Twitter, posting photos from the office party or using an article on LinkedIn to congratulate high performing staff can all be effective ways to demonstrate a company’s culture through social media.
