Job recruiting moves to social network sites

Social networking is creating fundamental changes in the way employees search for jobs, and how companies recruit.

One in five people now begins his or her job searches online via social networks including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, according to a recent survey of 18,000 job hunters in the United States by Michigan-based Kelly Services Inc., a workforce solutions provider.

“It’s not like the days of the past where we waited for the Sunday paper to look for job postings,” says Rich Struble, a vice president with Kelly Services who manages the firm’s Cincinnati territory. “Social media is really the next step in online recruitment, and it’s changing rapidly as it creates instantaneous lines of communication between employers and jobs seekers.”

For companies, social networks can help cast a broader — and still more focused — recruiting net. As social job hunting increases, more companies are fine-tuning their recruiting strategies to optimize the new tools, says Struble.

“They’re realizing a good digital presence isn’t just posting a position on an online jobs board,” Struble says.

Nearly 90 percent of companies say they will begin recruiting through social media this year, according to a June survey of 800 employers by Burlingame, Calif.-based Jobvite Inc., a recruiting products provider.

That’s up from 83 percent in 2010. And 55 percent of survey takers say they plan to invest in social media recruiting this year, making it the most popular area for new-hire spending, according to the survey.

“Companies are getting serious about developing training for recruiters to use social media and developing their presence on LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook,” Struble says. “Job seekers are beginning to expect it, and if a company doesn’t have a presence out there, it may lead a candidate to wonder why.”

At Farmers Insurance offices in Mason, Ohio, a team of eight recruiting officers are working to help the firm more than double the size of its Ohio market share by 2020.

“We still use traditional job boards and networking, but it doesn’t always get you in front of the candidates you’re looking for,” says Jad Buckman, a recruiting specialist.

Buckman says his firm has relied heavily on LinkedIn to break into the world of social media recruiting.

The professional networking site says it has more than 100 million registered users in more than 200 countries.

A better snapshot

Compared to other networks, “one of the benefits you get is a much better snapshot of someone’s background,” he says of LinkedIn.

ATT is actively recruiting candidates for thousands of jobs across the United States. The firm uses a variety of tactics, including tweeting links for positions to its 7,200 Twitter followers and more than 110,000 followers at the company’s LinkedIn careers page, says Carrie Corbin, associate director of staffing and talent attraction at ATT.

“(Social networking) is a direct path for conversation that allows engagement and brand enhancement,” Corbin says.

“It has truly enabled us to steer applicants away from the black hole of submitting a resume and never hearing back. We like to say a ‘no’ answer is better than no answer.”

In a digital world, the notion of brand appeal and awareness isn’t for companies alone, says Kelly Services’ Struble.

“Job seekers can really create a professional brand through these various social media sites that allow employers to better understand their capabilities and strengths,” he says.

When Louisville, Ky., native David Heyburn decided to switch his career from retail banking to urban planning, he first enrolled in the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art and Planning.

Then he turned to Twitter to immerse himself in his new field of study.

“I needed to educate myself as much as possible about the field, and I found with Twitter that I could connect with people who are real idea generators,” he says.

“The information there is coming directly from people who are at the top of the industry.”

While he also uses Facebook and LinkedIn, Heyburn says Twitter allows him to engage with people through channels that normally would be guarded by “gatekeepers and red tape.

“The key is you have to have something meaningful to say in the first place,” Heyburn explains.

Failing to update profiles or carefully manage their digital presence can wreak havoc for job candidates, says Krista Canfield, a senior manager of corporate communications at LinkedIn.

Profiles with photos, she says, are seven times more likely to be viewed by employers.

Nearly half of employers said they use social networking sites to screen job candidates, according to a Career Builder survey.

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