How to Use Social Media at Every Stage of the Hiring Process
By Josh Tolan
Social media remains one of the most powerful recruiting tools. In fact, a recent study by the Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) revealed that recruiting via social media is growing, with 84 percent of organizations using it currently and 9 percent planning to use it in the future. This is a big jump from the mere 56 percent of organizations that used social media for recruitment in 2011.
In other words, this recruiting trend is here to stay.
However, companies need to go beyond having social-friendly job posts and applications. To stay ahead of the competition for top talent this year, hiring professionals need to adopt interesting new ways to recruit via social media.
Here are some creative ways to incorporate social media into every stage of the hiring process:
Sourcing
The key to finding top-notch talent is to narrow down on the candidate sources that produce the most quality hires. According to LinkedIn’s Global Recruiting Trends report, those sources include social professional networks and employee referrals. So why not combine the two?
How to incorporate: When it comes to finding quality job candidates, who better to ask for help than the people who live, work, and breathe your company’s mission, vision, and values? Enlist the help of your employees by encouraging them to research and recommend relevant connections on social professional networks, like LinkedIn. This way, you end up with a pool of talent that comes recommended.
Screening
In addition to being a valuable candidate source, social media is a natural screening tool. So much so that nearly half (43 percent) of organizations surveyed by SHRM said they use social media to screen job candidates.
The reason? Sixty-one percent of organizations say they’re able to obtain more information about a candidate than what’s provided during the application process or available on a candidate’s resume.
But just how much can someone’s Twitter feed or Facebook profile tell you about their ability to succeed, if hired? Enough that 51 percent of employers who research job candidates on social media said they’ve found content that caused them to not hire the candidate, according to a CareerBuilder survey.
How to incorporate: We all know the value -- and risk -- in checking candidates out on social media during the hiring process. To negate that risk, take a new approach to screening via social media. Instead of basing hiring decisions on candidates’ social habits, good and bad, invite them to participate in a friendly competition on social media.
For example, have job candidates share their reason for wanting the job or why they think they should be hired in 140 characters or less via Twitter, using a specified hashtag so current employees can easily find and like their favorite. This is a creative way to get employees involved in the hiring process, while avoiding common legal risks associated with traditional social media screening methods.
Interviewing
After searching through pools of talent and screening candidates to find your top picks, the time has finally come to interview those candidates. Where does social media come in at this stage of the hiring process? While you can’t exactly interview candidates via sites like Facebook or Twitter, you can use those social tools to invite candidates to interview.
How to incorporate: Video interviews have become a valuable tool in the hiring professional’s toolbox, as they allow more people to take part in the interview, thus connecting hiring professionals to a much larger talent pool.
Best of all, one-way video interviews, in which candidates record their answers to a series of pre-set interview questions, enable candidates to complete the interview on their own time. If using a platform specifically designed for video interviews, this makes it easy to invite candidates to interview via an interview link on your company’s social media profiles.
Making the final offer
You’ve used social media to find, screen, and interview your top-choice candidates. Why not take it a step further and bring this social aspect into the final stage of the hiring process: making the job offer?
A company’s social media profiles serve as the perfect platform to publicly recognize employees (and new hires). Not to mention, it’s where job seekers go to learn more about your employer brand.
How to incorporate: While making the actual offer should be more personal and ideally take place over the phone or in person, once the candidate accepts and begins working, take it to social media.
Post a welcome message once the employee finishes their first week on the job that includes a photo of your new hire and some fun information about them, such as their favorite quote, food, or thing to do on the weekends. Not only does this welcome the new hire with open arms, it also boosts your overall employer brand to job seekers.
What are some other creative ways to use social media during the hiring process? Share in the comments below!
Josh Tolan is the CEO of Spark Hire, a video interview solution used by more than 2,000 companies across the globe. Connect with Spark Hire on Facebook and Twitter.
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