When it comes to social recruiting there are often unexpected benefits (and to be fair there are normally a few unexpected challenges), but hey, I’m focusing on the positives for this post. Some of these benefits come from the additional transparency in the recruitment process that being social can generate.
Consider the extract below from a recent LinkedIn recruitment campaign we were working on. For this particular campaign the client was generating a large number of jobs abroad. In addition to attracting locals for the roles, they also wanted to encourage relevant industry professionals that were UK based to relocate.
Relocation is often a big decision for candidates and therefore a number of facebook and LinkedIn groups were set up, specifically to encourage potential candidates to voice any questions to recruiters that they may have (relocation assistance, what is it like living there etc) before actually applying for the roles.
The initial idea was simply to generate a bit of engagement, allow candidates more info and insight into working abroad and therefore improve the number of candidates actually completing applications. As this extract is from a closed group, in the interests of privacy, certain details (names etc) have been omitted.
The candidate:
The recruiter response and candidate reply:
The internal recruiter followed up with the candidate who identified the recruitment agency and the specific consultant in question. Needless to say, the agency swiftly received a phone call from a non-too happy client (possibly former client by now I would imagine). Unfortunately such practices may have been going on for some time, resulting in unnecessary fees for the client.
Before the groups had been set up, candidates had little chance of contacting any recruiters directly as the application process was purely via an ATS. As you can see from the example above (which is one of many I could mention) the transparency that being social provides means you are more likely to identify kinks in the recruitment process quickly.
So, if you do decide to use social media to make the recruitment process more transparent and engaging; there are likely to be benefits you hadn’t even thought of.
By Jean-Paul Smalls of VONQ UK
Tags: Direct Sourcing, Employee Engagement, In-House Recruiting, Jean-Paul Smalls, Linkedin Recruiting, Online Recruitment, Social Media, Social Media Recruitment, social recruiting, Vonq, vonq uk
