Recruiters Could be Stealing Your Best Employees Right from Under Your Nose

By Tess Curle Taylor, PHR, CPC

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Could your best employees get stolen by a competing company without your knowledge? According to expert research, there’s a strong possibility that they may be getting romanced by a network of recruiters via social networks every day. Insidious as it may seem, it’s become the norm for many workplaces that allow employees full access to their social networks during work hours. We urge you to learn as much as you can about social media recruitment in order to be the employer of choice. 

How Many Employed People are Looking for New Jobs on the Sly?

Nearly half of all employed people spend time searching for new work opportunities online at least once a week. Savvy recruiters know this and they spend even more time looking for high-quality candidates by building their social presence. In their 2013 study, the Society of Human Resource Management advised that 77 per cent of employers used networking websites for recruiting in 2013. This figure is up dramatically from 34 per cent in 2012.

Additionally, a special report from Jobvite advised that when people are looking for work, nearly 21 per cent found a great new job through social networks such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook. A good number of working professionals have social profiles set up, making it easy for recruiters to search for them and find them online. It’s common for recruiters to connect with passive candidates on social networks as part of their efforts, making it too easy for those unsatisfied with their current roles to jump ship.

Being a Smart Employer – Understand Social Networking at Work

While it could be too soon to tell, employers who are not wise to the ways of social networking may not realize that their best employees are heading for greener pastures. Losing even one high-performance employee can be detrimental to business, therefore it’s important that employers can spot the signs that someone may be looking for something else. Here’s some advice for employers worried about losing their best employees.

Have a clearly written social media use policy.

Your workplace will fare better if you state in no uncertain terms the importance of respect for work vs personal activities using social networks. Be sure to create a social media use policy and include this in your standard handbook for employees. Let management know that social media use is for work-building activities and collaboration, not covert job searches and venting negatively about the company. If an employee abuses social media at work, handle this as you would any other workplace violation.

Engage your employees via your company's social networks.

Your company can use social media to build good will with employees. Instead of being a watchdog, use social networking to connect with employees on a regular basis. Celebrate employee achievements openly, ask employees for feedback, and share events and celebrations on social networks. Create a sense of community with employees to get employees involved in company matters and keep them focused on the positive aspects of working for your company.

Give your employees a reason to stay loyal.

If you don’t want your employees leaving for other job opportunities, then give them good reasons to stay loyal to your company. It sounds harsh, but too many companies take their workforce for granted and forget to give them room to grow. Do what it takes to maintain your staff by giving them rewarding projects, incentives, and encouragement from your management team. Make your work environment more appealing, and give employees proper outlets for reducing stress levels and being happier. You’ll find this is much more productive and positive for your workplace in the long term.

 

Image Credit: © Jakub Jirsák - Fotolia.com

 

 

The kind of stuff that Social Hire do...

The Social Hire team never just do social media marketing.

What the Social Hire gang loves is making a difference for our clients, and we don't want to waste your, or our resources on campaigns that aren't right for your organisation, if it doesn't get your organisation the difference you need - we prefer a better approach. When your business utilises social media management, Social Hire get your brand the exposure it needs and offer your business the lift it needs to improve.

Our specialists are a company that assists our customers further their presence online by giving online marketing on a regular basis.

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