Social networking media is playing a more prominent role in recruitment, finds new XpertHR research. Over the past two years, six employers in 10 (59%)* have increased the proportion of vacancies that they advertise on social media platforms such as Facebook and LinkedIn.
The findings show that social media is a more recent but rapidly increasing feature of many organisations’ recruitment strategies. The 2013 survey of digital media recruitment shows that just under half (46%) of employers use social networking platforms when hiring staff, compared to 89.1% who use their own corporate websites and 81.8% who rely on commercial job boards. The smaller proportion of organisations who incorporate social media platforms into their recruitment strategies reflects the fact that social media is a more recent – but growing – development in the digital landscape
The survey found that employers tend to use social media at the early, candidate attraction stage of recruitment rather than at the subsequent, applications management stage. The most common way for organisations to use social media is to promote themselves as an employer, either by driving applicants to their own corporate or careers website or by developing the organisation’s corporate page on a social media platform.
The three most popular social media channels that employers use to advertise their vacancies are LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.
Despite its relative newness as a candidate attraction tool, only a minority of employers (22%) have experienced problems with using social networking media for recruitment.
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The use of social media scores highly in increasing the recruiting organisation’s reach to a wide range of potential candidates, according to our sample of employers. Respondents are also positive about its effectiveness in reducing recruitment advertising costs and filling vacancies with suitable people, although it is not perceived as reducing the workload of those HR professionals involved in recruitment.
How social media is used for recruitment – % of respondents
Direct job advertising:
- Paid-for job advertising via social media platform – 50%
- Free job advertising via targeted social media platforms – 37%
- Advertise vacancies via ‘tweets’ or alerts – 37%
- Develop followers/supporters by posting regular updates and “sharing” new vacancies on social media channels – 30%
- Use the social media platform’s own job search engine to advertise your organisation’s vacancies – 18%
- Promote recruitment opportunities via video – 5%
Promotion as an employer:
- Drive applicants to organisation’s corporate career website/HR department/Job contact – 55%
- Develop/promote organisation’s own company page to attract job-seekers – 52%
- Branded promotion of the organisation as a potential employer – 30%
- Join relevant social media discussion groups to help identify suitable potential candidates – 22%
- Forward to a friend: individuals can forward details of a current vacancy to a friend or colleague – 22%
Applications management:
- Accept CVs/application forms on organisation’s behalf – 18%
- Applicant tracking system – 10%
- Screen suitability of potential recruits on their social networking pages – 7%
Source: XpertHR.
