Why Recruiters Need To Help Their Clients With Social Media
As recruiters most of us know the value of social media; as a recruitment to recruitment company we certainly do.
Yet are the clients you recruit for embracing social media and profiling their brand and company to attract the candidates they want? Probably not. The challenge is if they don’t, it is going to make your recruiting role much harder. Let’s explore this one a little more.
The UK economy is growing and for the first time in many years analysts are predicting a skills shortage. This shortage is apparent in most sectors and across the United Kingdom as a whole; not just oil and gas or engineering. Lack of investment in development and training of new recruits is now taking its toll and will do for a number of years to come; the result: lack of key people at every level in an organisation.
Acquiring talent is a big challenge for employers. Great that they use us as recruiters to help and this is where we can add even more value to our clients. How come? By pointing them in the right direction when it comes to ‘selling’ their company to the candidates we send them.
The World Wide Web has changed recruitment in the past few years; at every single step of the process. Not only can we find out more about prospective candidates they can also find out more about us, as recruiters and importantly the companies we put them in front of.
A recent whitepaper by Robert Walters group analysed the use of social media in the recruitment process. Interestingly job seekers consider both facebook and Twitter as personal social networks and LinkedIn as their professional network of choice. With over 85% having an active profile. Similarly employers have a main presence on LinkedIn; yet surprisingly over 20% don’t have a social media presence on LinkedIn.
Professional job seekers are already making use of social media to research companies they may wish to work for. Employers (your clients) must take this into account to position company profiles and news to reach those they most want to hire. The same social sites also provide a useful space for showcasing key messages about their brand; an increasingly important element when candidates are deciding who to work for.
As you might predict over 75% use social media for information on the organisation. Surprisingly two thirds (67%) also look for pointers on company culture and value and another 50% want some ideas on future strategy and possible career progression.
All interesting stats and ones that professional recruiters can use to help clients. Working in the recruitment sector we like to be known as consultants. Go and have a look at most recruitment companies, ‘about us’ page and words like; consultative, partnering and help at hand figure highly. Let me ask a question; is that what you are doing?
As a ‘consultant’ we are here to advise clients on how to make it easy for the candidates we send them to say yes. We can sing our clients praises all day and yet nothing is more powerful than experiencing what we communicate being validated online.
How then can we assist the clients we recruit for? This is where being a thought leader in your sector is important; when your own profile as a consultant demonstrates that you know and understand your market, clients will listen to you. After all you both want an ongoing relationship. That might be challenging them on role profiles or salaries through to giving them the latest advice on candidate engagement.
Till next time,
Cheryl