What Recruiters Want You to Know

Most recruiters will state that referrals set candidates apart. In general, these often turn out to be the best candidates, as well. With the pervasive nature of social media, referrals have now become both cheaper and easier to locate. But the networking technology is most efficiently used if companies use social media sites to talk up corporate culture, job vacancies, and allow employees to share experiences across the network. Social media has aided recruiters and has been useful in tapping into wider networks with high-quality job candidates. Human Resource leaders use social media to communicate with job candidates and use social media to target recruiting campaigns. All concur that social media has improved the quality of candidates and has been a huge time-saver.

Social recruiting also costs less per hire compared to traditional methods, largely due to the need for fewer recruiters, less advertising, and better candidates. Recruitment also becomes more of an internal issue, avoiding the need for third-party agencies. Social media is not only beneficial as a free referral and recruitment tool but as a creative means for building and maintaining a brand.

Social Recruiting gained momentum because of results. It’s an effective way to take a comprehensive look at a large candidate pool and quickly bring in high-quality talent. If you are in the throes of a job search, it’s important that you have profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. If you don’t, you won’t seem as relevant and companies might think that you’re hiding something. Next, companies are inspecting social profiles to weed out candidates and to get a sense of whether a particular applicant is likely to fit into the culture or not.

It is important to look at statistics and data. A new survey released by Jobvite, a company that provides applicant tracking software, shows that 92% of employers are using or planning to use social networks for recruiting this year. This is up slightly from last year at 89%. The study retrieved insights from over 1,000 companies, mostly based in the U.S., in a wide variety of industries.

Ninety- two percent of U.S. companies are using social media networks and media to find talent this year. This is up from 78% five years ago. LinkedIn remains the number one choice for company recruiters, but Facebook and Twitter are being used more frequently than in the past to find job candidates. It’s time to clean up your Facebook and Twitter pages.

Source: “Social Media Sites Make Referrals Easier and Even Cheaper to Find.” Recruiter. Web. 29 Nov. 2012. “How Recruiters Use Social Networks to Make Hiring Decisions Now.” Business Money How Recruiters Use Social Networks to Make Hiring Decisions Now Comments. Web. 29 Nov. 2012.