Employee Management for Small Business. Lin Grensing-Pophal
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When placing traditional print ads, many publications also now offer the opportunity for both print and online ad postings.
Because much of the recruiting you do is likely to be locally oriented, consider local sites that may offer opportunities to list jobs, or to link to your website’s job listings — local newspapers, the Chamber of Commerce, and universities and technical colleges are just a few possibilities.
When recruiting online, you need to have the same familiarity with the sites you’re using as you would with any technical or professional journal you advertise in. Who are the users of the site? What are their characteristics? How frequently is the site accessed? How widely does the site advertise?
Don’t overlook the “little details” either, like telling potential applicants how to contact you. Do you want resumes sent to you as email attachments? In what format?
Even when using your own site to post jobs — especially when using your own site to post jobs — simply including job listings on your site isn’t enough to generate response. You need to make sure that potential job seekers know that this information is available. That means promoting your site — consider the use of Rolodex cards or post-it notes with your web address and take advantage of other traditional print media (i.e., direct mail, notices on statements, etc.). Include your web address in all of your traditional job opening advertisements. Most importantly, make sure that your listings are up-to-date and that you’re responsive to the inquiries that you do receive.
The tools you use should be driven by the audience you’re trying to reach and their personal habits. Classified ads in local papers still play a place for some companies in recruitment. However, it pays to stay on top of other options, especially those — like social media — that are no cost and which may prove useful in reaching new demographic segments, e.g., millennials.
There is no question that there are a lot of places you can advertise open positions. The challenge, though, is to narrow down those possibilities to the few that will yield results. Even a free listing has costs associated with it — your time in particular. It pays to test the value of various online options. Keep track of where your applicants are coming from and where they’ve seen your ad, just as you would when using traditional recruiting methods.
3.10a Social Media
Social media and social networking are “all the rage” these days, of course. But beyond the purely “social” aspects of sites like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, does social media represent any legitimate business value? In the area of recruitment, it seems, it definitely does.
Even in November of 2006, National Public Radio had a spot on its “morning edition” about social networking and its benefits from a recruiting stand point. Today, these sites are becoming increasingly relied upon by HR departments as a source of job candidates. In fact, three-quarters of hiring managers check LinkedIn to research the credentials of job candidates, according to a Jump Start Social Media (www.jumpstartsocialmedia.com) poll on how social media is being used in the hiring process. Of the hiring managers surveyed, 75 percent use LinkedIn, 48 percent use Facebook, and 26 percent use Twitter to research candidates before making a job offer. When sourcing job candidates, 66 percent of hiring managers visit LinkedIn, 23 percent visit Facebook, and 16 percent use Twitter to find job candidates to fill openings.
Jobvite, a San Francisco-based provider of next-generation recruitment solutions, published the results of its second annual Social Recruitment Survey in 2009, which found that employers are more satisfied with the quality of candidates from employee referrals and social networks than those from job boards. As a result, companies intend to invest more in these cost-effective candidate sources in 2009, rather than job boards and other traditional sources, including search firms, according to the survey.
Social media can be used in three primary ways when recruiting:
• Posting available jobs. Jobs can be posted in LinkedIn “groups” of linked to from “tweets” posted to Twitter.
• “Trolling” for potential candidates. By becoming actively involved with social networking sites, recruiters can make contact with people who may not necessarily be actively seeking a job. Or, contacts may be made with former colleagues and acquaintances who may be considering a new job or have the types of skills your company is looking for.
• “Checking out” applicants/interviewees. The Internet makes it easy to find information about applicants to augment the traditional reference-checking process.
• Sites like LinkedIn also provide an opportunity to see what others may have said about others through “recommendations.”
Because of the “low cost of entry” — there are no out-of-pocket costs associated with social media recruitment efforts — and constant media buzz about the popular sites, many companies are considering how they might turn to social media for everything from recruitment to marketing.
Time is money, of course. Some of the “fear” surrounding the use of social media is the time that may be required — or diverted — to learn about and “play with” these tools. Consequently, those considering this option should develop a strategy for their activities to avoid being overcome by the overwhelming amount of information and options available through these sites. Know what you hope to get out of social media from a recruitment standpoint and develop methods of tracking results. It may not be right for all organizations, of course. The key determinant will be the types of candidates you’re looking for. But the proliferation of groups on sites likeLinkedIn suggest that there is literally “something for everyone” in the social media space.
Another important point — even if you’re not currently recruiting or not currently sure that social media holds value for you in terms of recruitment, it doesn’t hurt to start “dabbling” in the social media environment. In social media, it’s all about building community — a community that can help to spread the word and serve as ambassadors for your organization. Just getting out there and experimenting to learn more about the options and to begin making connections can be a good place to start.
A SHRM poll indicated that the use of social media sites for recruitment is on the upswing — respondents identified a number of benefits driving them to use these sites.
Patty DeDominic is a former professional recruiter who built, ran, and then sold a multimillion dollar staffing firm. DeDominic posted a CEO position for an international organization on LinkedIn and received “quite a few qualified candidate referrals.” She offers the following tips for recruiting based on her experience:
• Use every means possible to communicate your need to a wide audience, including: social media, online job boards, professional organizations, certification bodies, and educational/alumni associations.
• Referrals are like gold and people love helping others become more successful. Tap into these via the social networks and the people who love to connect and share resources.
• People involved in social networks know who the leaders are. With a few questions to a few active people, you can usually find the connectors and the leaders of the networks.
• People who have spent years building their skills and professional reputations do things to stand out in the crowd; they write and publish their findings and often their opinions. Their reputations and “networks” tell more about them than you can learn in five interviews.
Table 1: Benefits of Social Media for Hiring
4. Developing Your Recruitment Ad
Your employment ad should cover four areas: the type of person you are looking for, pay, benefits, and where and how to apply. You also need to be aware of equal opportunity requirements (in the United States) or human rights legislation (in Canada).
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