The 5 Phases of Social Recruiting

By Erica Bell

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All recruiting is social; isn’t it? HR managers and recruiters speak with others about an available position, the candidate’s experience and have a conversation about how one can benefit the other. But with the influx of social networks, and the amount of users that have taken to those networks, recruiting has become more than a standard social experience. In today’s society, social recruiting is when businesses use social media as part of their recruiting efforts to build a community of potential candidates and engage with them as positions become available. In their list of the top ten recruiting stats, Resource Nation notes that 49% of recruiters have received more job applications through social recruiting. For those just getting started with social recruiting, there are 5 phases you need to be aware of and incorporate into your social recruiting strategy.

Attraction

Social recruiting is, in part, about making new connections and engaging with potential candidates, no matter if they’re active or passive job seekers. The attraction between your company and the applicant begins with your proactive search and enticing job description. Before you even begin recruiting on social networks, consider what it is that attracted most of your current employees to the company and what benefits or responsibilities will attract the ideal candidate for the position you are trying to fill.

Sourcing

After you’ve determined what will attract the best person for the position you’re trying to fill, establish what channels you’ll be able to find these candidates on. Identify which characteristics top candidates will have and how you can uncover who they are on social networks. Recruiting software can help you mine through the information and data so that you can find experts, specialists and the top talent you’re after.

Engagement

Now that you’ve created an attracting job description and have determined what networks your most-qualified candidates are on, you need to focus on engagement. Use employees within your company, blog posts about your culture and open questions to begin dialogs with potential new hires. Guest chat sessions on Twitter or Facebook or featured quotes from employees focus on personal engagement. Use your social media analytics to determine what content consumers engage with and look for ways to tie that into your recruiting strategy on social networks.

Selection/Screening

An important part of the new hire process is screening. Calling up references, though still used by many, isn’t the only tactic available now. Before you reach out to a candidate or select one of your applicants as new employee, do a social presence evaluation. What is the individual’s social reputation and what types of content are they sharing? However, you should be wary of what social information you use in screening applicants as you don’t want to violate any anti-discriminatory laws. You may want to even consider outsourcing your social screening.

Offer/Onboard

Once you’ve narrowed down your pool of potentials, consider whether or not using social media will be a good way to offer the candidate the job. ePrize used Instagram to extend their offer to a recent grad (who accepted) and 42Floors sent out an offer via their blog to an applicant (who declined). If you’re not ready to take the public risk associated with social job offers, consider making social media “new hire love” part of your onboarding process – tweet out a congrats on their first day or rave about the possibilities they bring to the table in a blog post. Employees want to feel valued and social media can help you accomplish just that.

Social recruiting may be a part of your overall hiring strategy, but it also requires its own, well-thought-out plan. If you’re getting started with social recruiting, or looking for a way to make your efforts more effective, make sure you’re addressing these 5 phases of the social recruiting process.

(Image: Stuart Miles via freedigitalphotos.net)

About the company...

The Social Hire team never just do social media marketing.

Our group of specialists are an organisation that helps our clients boost their social media marketing by offering social media management services on a monthly basis.

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