Sourcing Goes Social

Sourcing Goes Social

by Kim Lessley

Just about everything one might read about it says social networking is the wave of the future for recruiting, and companies must participate or they won't be able to compete for talent. Is this true? Probably.

The book The Cluetrain Manifesto argued for a transparent marketplace with employee advocates of an organization long before social networking on the Internet existed outside of forums and chat rooms. But the majority of employers and recruiting vendors are not there yet.

There are a few challenges, but many benefits to using social networking for recruiting.

Social networking sites have taken a big bite out of job boards in terms of recruiting mind share and use. As more and more recruiters turn their attention to LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and the like as candidate sourcing tools, there are some identified best practices to recruit in a networked world. Implementing these can maximize social networking as a virtual resource and ensure it complements other areas of talent management such as retention, learning and development, on-boarding and performance management.

It Won't All Be Easy and Fun

There are many opinions of what social recruiting is and how to execute it, as well as numerous tools that claim to support this initiative. But it is not always clear which tool is the best one to use for a particular organization or to reach a specific demographic or audience within an organization.

Many companies have trouble getting buy-in from management to embrace social recruiting, and there is no easy way to measure ROI. Further, not everyone is comfortable opening up the lines of internal communication with the outside so freely and allowing candidates and other non-employees visibility into how the company works. Many companies are still grappling with whether employees should be allowed to access social networking sites at work.

According to an October 2009 study commissioned by IT staffing firm Robert Half Technology, just more than half of U.S. companies say they have barred workers from using social networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace, on the job. Yet in the same month, Deloitte, Beeline Labs and the Society for New Communications Research released a study that said virtually all companies that already have invested in social media and online communities plan to continue or expand their investments in this area.

Let's assume companies decide to at least allow recruiters and sourcing professionals to access social media sites to find candidates. These employers will need to put guidelines in place to ensure recruiters are not unduly influenced by the non-job-related content available on these sites - such as how a candidate looks, what church he or she attends, or his or her opinions about current events and politics.

For example, if a recruiter reviews one candidate's social media profile when sourcing for a position, he or she needs to review the social media profiles of all candidates being considered for that position. The organization could also make a clear separation between the people who review social media profiles and those who make decisions about the hire, so those making the ultimate decisions are not unduly influenced.

These guidelines and policies will differ for each employer. Generally, recruiters understand how to handle sensitive recruiting data, but if hiring managers are reviewing social media content as well, they should be coaching recruiters on the company's social media recruiting policies. This coaching could be a combination of training via workshop, e-learning or documentation, as well as day-to-day or case-by-case guidance as needed.

The jury is still out on how government agencies charged with ensuring fair hiring practices will rule with regard to using social media content to evaluate candidates. So some organizations naturally will be more cautious than others about using social media for recruiting. It's a good idea to have company legal counsel weigh in on social recruiting policies and plans.

Also, it's important to consider how social recruiting will make internal processes and company culture more transparent. This means if employees don't like working at the organization or the recruiting process is a mess, social media will help make these facets much more obvious.

Promise and Practicality

Despite these challenges, social media still holds a lot of promise for recruiting. Employee referrals are one of the best and least expensive sources for quality candidates. Using social media for recruiting is like employee referrals on steroids.

When a company's employees are engaged and proud of their employer, they can easily act as an extension of the recruiting function, spreading information about the company culture and job opportunities - from proactively tweeting jobs on Twitter to passively becoming a fan of their own company's career page on Facebook. These simple things can help recruiters reach company employees' extended networks.

Social and professional media enable a recruiter to learn much more about a candidate than can be found in a static resume document. Peer referrals on sites such as LinkedIn also make pre-qualification easier. For example, if a recruiter sees a person has a number of great referrals and seems to have the right qualifications for the position, he or she has saved a lot of time by not doing the cold calling that might have been necessary to reach such a pre-qualified candidate in the past.

According to a CareerBuilder study published in August 2009, nearly half of all employers in the U.S. use social media to research candidates. But that is only one aspect of using social media for recruiting. Even if social recruiting does not always results in immediate hires, ideally talent managers can use it to initiate long-term relationships with potential candidates - or customers - and to improve employer branding.

The best way to start implementing any kind of social recruiting strategy is to begin with research. Don't worry if a huge budget isn't available; there is no need to hire an expensive consultant to get started. There is a plethora of public information on the Internet - blogs, podcasts, webinars, articles - all available for free. Take a look at competitors or other companies already using social media for recruiting, and figure out which of their approaches might work well in your organization.

Then take a hard look at internal recruiting processes. Using social media to drive lots of great candidates to a career site won't do much good if they drop off without completing the application process because it's too confusing or complex. Ask friends and family to visit the organization's career site to apply for a job, and gauge the experience from a candidate's viewpoint. Address any issues that crop up with the process or the candidate experience.

Next, be sure to get the marketing department onboard. Marketing drives overall company branding efforts, so talent managers will want to be in sync with that department and potentially piggyback on any initiatives it has running or in the works related to social media.

Be Open, Be Honest

As the name suggests, social recruiting is a social thing - meaning initiating and maintaining ongoing conversations. Once talent leaders ensure the organization's career site is up to snuff and figure out which tools they'd like to use for social recruiting, they need to make sure the organization is committed. Social recruiting is not a short-term strategy. To get the most from social media, a company needs to invest the necessary time to learn how to use it effectively, and the organization must be prepared to keep the lines of communication open.

More and more of today's employment candidates expect open dialogue and immediate feedback. For example, this means if an organization has a Facebook page dedicated to recruiting, it had better ensure it is monitored by someone from recruiting who will respond to inquiries posted there and provide updated content. If it makes sense, solicit some top employees to blog about their work and lives, and be sure not to censor them. People active in social media today expect others to be genuine. Don't get upset if employees occasionally blog about their dogs or kids instead of what's happening on the job. People will connect better if they can see the employee as a real person with real issues, just like them.

It is also important to ensure the organization's social media strategy is consistent. For example, include links to the career site and important social media sites in e-mail signatures and on each separate social media site where the organization maintains a presence. Recruiters need to meet people where they are and provide multiple channels to drive them to the company's career site.

Because it is a long-term strategy and involves so many intangibles, such as employer image and candidate goodwill, it can be hard to quantify the success of a social recruiting strategy. Talent managers can look at quality of hire and time to fill metrics to help gauge how well the organization is reaching and hiring great candidates through social media, but potential benefits go way beyond recruiting.

People will tweet, blog and post whatever they want, but companies can influence some of that content. The best defense is to join the conversation - genuinely listen to what people are saying about the company's products, services and recruiting experience - and respond accordingly.

Social media can certainly enhance an employer's brand and help nurture relationships with potential employees and customers, but social recruiting alone cannot make a bad workplace good.

[About the Author: Kim Lessley is senior solution manager for SAP Labs LLC.]