Don’t believe the hype - the Social Web and recruitment

[Moz]

I’m getting sick and tired of hearing people banging on about the value of social media web applications such as Facebook, Twitter and blogs as recruitment tools. Some even suggest they are essential and that employers who don’t use them will be left behind or miss out in some way. In particular social media is claimed to be by far the best way to recruit “gen-y”.

However, a recent survey by US careers site aftercollege.com found quite the opposite. Out of of 670 college students and alumni, social networking sites “such as Facebook” was ranked last out of 15 different methods of finding a job.

Pretty much all of the Gen-Y people I know have a Facebook profile, but those who are active users participate purely for social/voyeuristic reasons within an established circle of friends. They don’t use it expecting to be sold to or recruited and if they’re looking for a job they go to suitable job boards (usually Seek and/or niche sites).

It seems some of the people who have been pushing social web applications as recruitment tools are starting to admit that the concept is over hyped and are trying to reset expectations, but they are assuming that these ‘social web’ apps will gradually become accepted by main stream business as ‘must use’ recruitment tools. I don’t think they ever will, and here’s why.

Traditional recruitment tools such as job boards, print media and recruitment agencies, can be utilised at will and require no time commitment outside the hiring cycle. On the other hand the social web applications start at zero effectiveness. A considerable investment in time is required to attract a sizeable relevant audience in the hope that they will respond when you start introducing recruitment into the content. To remain useful, social web apps require an on going and regular involvement to retain the attention of the audience, even when you are not recruiting.

So not only is your constant input required to nurture and feed your social web presence, but there’s another side to the social web which may cause sleepless nights for your PR people – it’s two way! The audience, which is effectively anonymous, can have their say about you as an employer and a corporate citizen.

I’m not saying that the social web is completely useless for recruiting, there will be always be some exceptions, but generally speaking the likes of Facebook, Twitter and blogs are far less effective than traditional recruitment tools and the return on investment is negligible.

The one exception to this is LinkedIn, but then I class LinkedIn as a business networking application, not a social networking app.

Moz.

[CLM]

Moz, I would have to agree with you on this point. I work in hospitality and with 65% of our workforce under the age of 34 - I am faced with dealing with Gen-Y and the challenge of how to best communicate with that generation on a very regular basis.

I have tried various recruitment avenues, and for this generation, nothing has beaten Seek. Just wondering if there is anyone out there that has had any success using these social networking avenues?

[michaelakassar]

Hi All,

I too agree with Moz on this issue. LinkedIn does appear to be the only networking site designed for professionals. However there doesn't appear to be many Australian members.

Perhaps there may be a need in Australia for sites that are targeted at professionals. I also feel that some Gen Ys may not have grown up around enough white collar workers and were not educated in business principles. Therefore they may not understand the value of business networking. Most of the ones I know don't seam to be interested in corporate work. Some of them don't present themselves in a professional manner (although the same can also be said for mature workers who have little office exposure).

Regardless of all the latest technology, nothing beats good old fashioned face to face networking.

We should aim to make every meal into a business deal.



Cheers

[cam]

As a Gen-Yer myself I'm deeply immersed in the social networking culture and can safely say that Facebook would be one of the last places I would expect to find employment. I do have a LinkedIn account but like many never check it because the fun factor is a lot lower than other sites, which brings me to my next point. Although it's possible that people would use Facebook as a professional networking tool I think the vast majority would use it to connect with their friends. I have seen people connect with employment with someone in their circle of friends, but it's typically not a skill related position, just an extra hand with a warehouse sale or something along those lines.

Another aspect of the recruitment and social networking thing is that gaining employment isn't really a social activity, the core value of these sites is the sharing of information and you wouldn't be sitting there telling your friends about jobs you want to apply for, especially if you have a network of friends who work in a similar field just in case someone wanted to cut your lunch.

Employers having access to applicants is an even more difficult prospect, on Facebook (almost) impossible, on Twitter more possible as long as potential candidates were willing to 'follow' an account that was posting job ads, even then you've only got 140 characters. So where I can connect with employers and have full information of the positions I'm interested ? ........JOB SITES!

[Moz]

Originally Posted by CLM

I have tried various recruitment avenues....

This is a key factor in recruitment - explore all avenues to find the people you need. This is what the best agency recruiters do (and why they succeed after their clients have failed).

You soon learn which recruitment channels are the most fruitful, and those are the once which should take priority when it comes to allocating your time and advertising budget.

This is a problem I have with social web applications, while they may not cost anything to use in hard dollar terms, they can soak up massive amounts of time which, most of us don't have to spare, without yielding any material results.

Some proponents of the social web as a recruitment tool seem to think that it will replace the more traditional attraction methods. They appear to be suggesting that Facebook and Twitter will end up satisfying all our recruitment needs, but this will never happen. This is obvious to anyone who actually specialises in recruitment (in-house or agency).

Social web apps do have a place in the recruiters arsenal, but only if the time and effort required to use them is proportionate to the measurable results (the hires you make through them).

[BriscoeSearch]

I think it i s important to recognise the power of Social Media. It may not be your key strategy, and it will very much depend on who your audience is ( as you stated) but it is important to get involved- even if it is just to provide a way of interacting with Candidates and even Clients ( Leighton use Twitter and their own blog quite extensively). We also get involved

SEEK is a great recruitment tool, but they have invested a lot of time and money into ensuring they rank highly in search engines. Social Media tools only assist with this, however this does take time.