The landscape of HR has changed drastically over the last decade with social media being a pivotal turning point. As a recruitment business we still see a large divide between HR Directors who are passionate about social, social recruiting and social HR. Then on the contrary we see HR Directors who have yet to dip a toe in the digital recruitment world.
Some HR professionals have tried it, disliked it and walked away, others have embraced social whole heartedly, written policies and incorporated it into daily life. Others use it when they need it.
Hence it is hard to define a holistic role of social media in HR and recruitment, but we can determine that it does have a role.
From a recruitment agency perspective, social media is a great tool. It has given us a whole new toolbox with which we can talk to our candidates and promote our clients. Each platform has different benefits. For our business, we see Facebook as a place to be more relaxed. We can share our roles but also promote content that can help potential candidates look for jobs and support them in their career change.
LinkedIn – despite its obvious benefits as a means to find passive candidates, helps us share employment updates, industry news and ask for feedback.
And Twitter?
Twitter is where we come to chat, engage, and have our finger on the pulse so we can keep up with the fast moving sectors we work in. (Plus we get the occasional bit of celebrity gossip.)
As a recruitment agency I can only predict that we will turn more and more to social sourcing and as we prepare to launch our new website we aim to make it as socially engaging a possible.
And HR?
From a HR perspective, the role of social media seems blurred. This article by Jeanne Meister writes about trends impacting social HR. One trend is that the traditional resume will soon become defunct, replaced by Google searches, LinkedIn profiles, Twitter updates and Klout scores.
It is becoming easier to apply for jobs with a LinkedIn profile, certainly useful is you use a mobile device. However when we raised this topic with hiring managers the consensus appeared to be remain in traditional thought. Hiring Managers want to see how you present yourself in the written word through a formal document. The CV is a glimpse into the jobseekers soul, one that looks like it is set to stay throughout 2013 and onwards.
The NHS were recently in the news, they are turning social for recruitment, the impact of this could be far reaching, already we have heard the comment if the NHS can do it – can’t everyone?
A great source of information about social media and HR can be found on the XpertHr site. Have a read of this post on ‘Recruitment gets more social’ which talks about how HR uses digital for candidate sourcing.
Other sites which discuss the topic eloquently include T Recs (when he is not happily conversing about Arsenal.) This post highlights how social media can only work when you have an advocate – forcing people to use it means it will be done badly – in any market sector.
What are your thoughts on HR, recruitment and social media?
Image courtesy of photoraidz, from freedigitalphotos.net