Social Media: The New Frontier in Talent Acquisition

Have you found a job using LinkedIn, Twitter, or another social media outlet? Do you look for candidates via social media? If you answered no to either of those questions you’re in the minority, because hiring and social media go hand-in-hand. Organizational talent acquisition is moving in the same direction as other aspects of the workplace, which is: more virtual, instantly connected, driven by the online marketplace, and built on information that is accessible, shareable and responsive.

According to a study from Jobvite.com: 73% of organizations plan to increase their usage of social and mobile in their recruiting efforts this year. And this is on top of the fact that 93% of companies used or plan to use social to bolster their talent acquisition strategies.

Furthermore, 93% of companies recruit through LinkedIn network, and 66% find people through Facebook. Even a medium as seemingly transactional as Twitter has created a platform for more than half of all companies to find talent.

What’s this telling you? The recruiting and hiring process is becoming more social—check out this article from Fast Company on making innovative strides to use Facebook for the job search; new ideas are consistently springing up and the trend is clear— hiring AND developing employees through social media is here to stay.

What this means for companies and organizations is that job seekers are finding out more and more about your company, from friends, networks, and an ever-growing pool of information. In the same way that companies protect their brand and manage their image, they must now understand how to hire the best candidate from a larger pool of candidates who are all qualified and all skilled.

Company culture is a differentiator. The Jobvite study pointed out that 73% of companies used their culture as a way to create competitive advantage in the talent marketplace. That is more than benefits, compensation, and the ability to work remotely.

Finding what your culture is about and communicating that is another topic entirely (check out this blog from our company’s President Morgan Browning on how to actually make your corporate culture relevant and real).

But…finding candidates is what I want to get to and social media is only the first step.

This is where Analytical approaches and good, old-fashioned interviews can revive their importance. The “search and find” is all about social media and all about casting a wide net to an eager job-hunting audience. Hiring and social media are playing critical and growing roles in the connectivity of the job search. But it ultimately comes down to knowing what is best for your company and the position and finding candidates to match.

Here’s my pitch for structure and analysis after you’ve made your company and your jobs known via social media:

1. Conduct a rigorous and proper job analysis.
2. Reach out on social media and other outlets with a job description fueled by your job analysis.
3. Test candidates on motivational, skill-based, and experience-related aspects of the job.
4. Get Social and check references – but ask references for real, definable instances of how the candidate performed.
5. Follow up on candidate skill and motivational testing by asking behavioral questions.
6. Look at how candidates compare to your job needs, not just each other.

This is our process, and it works well, but the key is to embrace hiring and social media and follow up with proven selection procedures.

(This article was originally written by Mark Miller for LinkedIn Pulse)

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