By
Henrik Rydén
Social sourcing (social sourcing of candidates, social recruiting, social hiring or social media recruitment) is the term used for reaching out to candidates by using social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube. Recent studies show that 76% of all US Internet users are on social media, and 79% of job-seekers use social media in their job search. Although this is a US statistic, this is not a US phenomenon. This is a global pattern. Check out your own smartphone. Navigate to “setting” and scroll to “battery.” Check what percentage of the total battery time you dedicated to social media. The number may surprise you. And if your organization is taking the Youth SDG goal seriously, you should know that 86% of millennial job-seekers use social media to look for jobs. The world has already changed. Are you prepared to change with it?
15 minutes per day. We guarantee improved quality of your applicants.
I often meet with International Organizations, and very few understand the potential of social sourcing. The knowledge about who visits their sites is extremely low. I often know more, although I only have access to external data. A common statement during these meetings are - We are not getting the right candidates!
And when I mention social sourcing, I often hear statements like: - We already have a presence on Facebook and Twitter, but it does not help us.
For most organizations, this statement is true. Many organizations have a presence on social media and in most cases it does not help them to get better candidates. But the problem is not social media. The problem is how the organization uses the tool. If you have a hammer at home and want it to help you as a screwdriver, it won’t work so well either.
In fact, very few International Organizations use their social media accounts for recruiting. The accounts are often used to inform the world about the organization, about what they do and their results. And it is quite often the communications unit that owns the accounts. Human Resources very rarely own them. From an employer branding perspective, it is extremely important to have a site where the organization presents themselves and their mission. We recommend continuing to do this.
However, we suggest adding to this. Specifically, add a social media channel dedicated to talking about jobs and career. This could be your recruiting fast-track channel to reach out to talents interested in a career at your organization. You will be able to educate potential talents and prepare them for what a career with your organization is like.
Don’t spread yourself too thin. Make sure you have a clear objective for your social media presence.
Focus on one channel. This could mean taking 15 minutes a day to post information about ongoing and upcoming recruitments, and describe the talent profiles needed. And why not take 15 minutes to respond to followers’ questions as well.
Impactpool offers all posting organizations their own career site. If your organization does not allow for create a new site, or allow you to post at the pace you like, use the Impactpool site. But remember to add a social media channel also requires that you have enough content to fill your channel with, for larger organizations this may not be a challenge, but it certainly is for medium and small organizations. It is also proven that the engagement increase when others share information about you in social media. Hence, your news may be more viral if someone else is sharing your news. Impactpool has profound expertise in social recruitment and we are the partner for a large number of organizations. Please contact us if you have any questions about how to get started! We’re here to help.