The majority of the respondents outlined that they see Social Media as an inevitable opportunity to reach a much larger audience and access greater information at lower costs and a faster speed than is possible by using traditional recruitment tools. However, all of the respondents underlined that companies and also candidates can only benefit from the advantages Social Networking Sites open up for recruitment, when they use it properly and precisely.
According to the interviewees, it is crucial to know exactly what one is looking for and how to use Social Media to one's advantage. Within this regard, defining the target audience and selecting the right Social Media platform are important steps to consider when engaging online. Also, the distribution of internal resources that are required to tap the full potential of your engagement on Social Media is of great importance. Respondents mentioned that...
Having a knowledgeable person to operate and nourish a company's Social Media initiative is a must-have.
Engaging on Social Networking Sites can become a very time-consuming and nerve-racking activity, when organizations lose track of what they are looking for and what they are aiming to achieve via Social Recruiting. If companies lack the ability to precisely define their strategic approach and target their searches, the flood of resumes that they receive to a job posting will literally swamp them. Therefore, defining and specifying search criteria is another important part of Social Recruiting.
Each Social Networking Site addresses a different target group and offers varying functions to search, screen and source candidates. Eventually, whichever platform a company uses for its recruitment has a great impact on their search results. Most of the respondents outlined that in the past, the number of resumes that they received to their job postings overwhelmed them (e.g. 2,000 search results on LinkedIn). From their experience, the quantity of candidates was extensive. However, the majority of the candidates they sourced via SNSs lacked qualitative criteria. In the majority of the cases, this was a result of posting jobs too fast and without targeting them to their desired group of applicants. In addition, companies either underestimated, or did not even know about the importance of using the right phrasing (e.g. keywords).
Furthermore, the interviewees outlined that having a responsive streamline system, which allows them to monitor and filter results, and respond to candidates much quicker, is fundamental in order to take advantage of the huge candidate pools that SNSs provide. A great and responsive filtering system should be able to clear the flood of candidates out instantaneously. This prevents companies from wasting their time by screening hundreds of candidates and resumes that do not match their defined search and selection criteria. Thus, it is indispensable to thoroughly define one's Social Recruiting objectives, select the right channel, target searches, and allocate sufficient and qualified resources to operate and monitor the recruitment effort. All of the respondents highlighted that it is crucial for both companies and candidates to thoroughly evaluate what to post online and how to control content which others post that can influence their image and reputation. According to the interviewees...
The risk of getting trashed by competitors or unsatisfied employees is one of the major dangers associated with the usage of Social Media.
