Are Candidates Falling Short of Facebook’s Social Recruiting Capabilities?
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Today, a large majority of professional recruiters turn to social media as the go-to source of talent. Social recruiting provides certain key benefits that no other technology can offer - at least for the time being. However, could it be possible that candidates are not living up to the expectations that the average recruiter has for them?
What's Going on With Candidate Use of Facebook?
According to a recent report from Link Humans, a social media agency, candidate behavior is not keeping up with recruitment activities. This report and the associated infographic, featured on HR Morning, examined hundreds of applicants and specifically asked them about their use of Facebook during job searches. This report revealed that when using Facebook…
- Almost 70 percent had never used Facebook to look for a new job opportunity
- Nearly 95 percent individuals said they had not found a job or been hired via Facebook
- More than half said they would never connect with current or former co-workers on Facebook
- Around 90 percent of respondents had not directly connected with recruiters via Facebook
On the upside, people indicated that when using Facebook...
- 68 percent of the individuals polled had filled out their professional information on their social profiles
- 79 percent of applicants said that Facebook is a good source of information on companies
What this survey uncovered was that there may be a breakdown of how recruiters use social media sites like Facebook vs. how the average candidate sees this as a potential place for finding work. It’s clear that candidates are not fully utilizing Facebook and other social media sites for job searching purposes.
Increasing Candidate Success on Facebook Social Recruitment
Why is this? Let's look at a few possible reasons why candidates are not living up to the expectations of social recruitment pros on Facebook.
Lack of education about the use of social networks for career searches
The truth is, many candidates simply do not know how to use Facebook effectively for their job search. If recruiters want candidates to use Facebook more often for job searches, then there needs to be an increased effort to educate candidates. Recruiters can step up to the plate and offer workshops to teach job seekers how to make the most of Facebook for finding a job online -- such as using the Facebook professional skills section.
Not enough resources for job seekers to connect with recruiters
While it’s still a great way for recruiters to find candidates, Facebook has a little ways to go in terms of giving candidates the resources they need to confidently connect with recruiters. Smart social recruiters are adept at creating group pages and industry presence online, but it can be nearly impossible for candidates to find the right recruiters for their focal careers.
Facebook is focused on marketing not recruitment efforts
Facebook could take some more cues from social recruitment sites like LinkedIn when it comes to marketing to job seekers, instead of just being a consumer marketing powerhouse. Imagine the potential that would come of this? Recruiters would be able to better categorize talent and go after top performance candidates if Facebook would provide more tools to do so.
As recruiters who use Facebook and other social networking sites to find the best talent, we can only hope that candidates will find ways to harness this resource for their job searches. The above report illustrates that we still have a long way to go.
Image Credit: © Michael Brown - Fotolia.com
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