Social Media’s has infiltrated the workplace, yes. And many organizations have advanced their capabilities in leading-edge fashion. HR departments far and wide are scrambling to figure out how to exploit its benefits while protecting the organization from the corresponding risk of doing so. Despite this activity, many organizations just haven’t gotten on-board yet with social recruiting – for whatever reason (and there are a myriad). So what happens when you, HR professional, get social media as an individual but you just can’t get your organization to come along with you? Angel McCliggott is a regional recruiter for Michigan based Independent Bank and her guest post today reflects exactly on that quandary…and she has a good recommendation. Check it and then make sure you’re connected with her (Twitter @AngelMcCliggott)
“Why don’t we have applicants for that position, didn’t you put an ad in the newspaper?” Yes, my managers still ask me that question every now and then. No, I didn’t put an Ad in the paper. I’m not trying to sell my old treadmill, I’m trying to attract some talent here. No one reads the paper for the Job Classifieds any more. And if they are, they sure aren’t the kinds of candidates we’re looking for. Alas, even though I can expose millions of eyes to our openings with a couple of clicks – whether it be to the job boards or to the social media platforms – they’d rather have it in the paper.
The time to jump on board with social media in the talent acquisition realm is long gone. Yet I still struggle with getting the buy in from the management team. They say, “why would I want to waste time and money on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, BranchOut, Google+ where people talk about what they had for dinner?” And I say, “because it’s where EVERYONE is talking about what they had for dinner.” These platforms have quite literally become the center of the universe for some people – and many of them are talented job candidates.
Here’s the other thing…maybe the biggest. It’s getting to the point where candidates absolutely expect their company (current and future) to be in the social media game. The first things candidates check these days: the company website, what the company’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages look like, and what’s happening in the company’s Twitter stream. They are not checking the classifieds. They just aren’t.
So if you you’re still dealing with a management team that’s in love with printed job postings and the newspapers that carry them, start building a business case around this last piece with them. Tell them social media is not about the company finding the candidates; it’s about the candidates finding the company.
Image Credit: just.Luc
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