Social Media & Recruiting – What the Future Holds

 

Social Media screening of candidates has become common practice in today’s fast passed recruiting process. Is it ethical, or does this behavior infringe on ones freedom of speech, and how efficient is it really?

Since social media was plugged-in as an integral part of most companies recruiting process’, people have had to think twice about what to post on their personal feeds. Recruiters and head hunters are more and more turning to social to not only screen potential candidates that have been identified, but reaching out to them direct via social networks after identifying a presumed ‘match’.

For it’s part LinkedIn, the self proclaimed largest professional network, has been put under scrutiny for essentially ruining the recruiting process as we commonly know it. The claim by Entrepreneur.com, is that using social networks such as LinkedIn has “actually destroyed the efficiency of the recruiting function, making it more difficult to connect with qualified talent.”

The result is a vicious cycle; as recruiters find it more difficult to identify the ideal candidate.

Their argument is that the recruitment process is less personal and focused, and has become more a free-for-all, as recruiters spin more cycles and put forth more effort in order to try and find their ideal candidate, while receiving fewer and fewer responses.

On the other hand, Undercover Recruiter, a site based in the UK argues that LinkedIn has actually helped and streamlined the recruitment process, by offering up the ability to key in on passive candidates, or those not presently looking for a career change, but make up the large majority of professionals.”This enables employers to pinpoint the perfect candidates and engage with them directly through LinkedIn. This reduces the time and cost involved in recruiting the best talent.” states the article.

Their stance on this topic is discussed in more detail with James Caan and other British business leaders.

In addition to all that, there’s also the ethical side of things. In 2013 Harris Interactive, on behalf of CareerBuilder, surveyed 2,100 hiring managers and human resource professionals, of which 43% “said they have found information [through social media] that has caused them not to hire a candidate”, up 9% from 2012.

I wanted to understand a newer companies point view on this topic so I spoke with Mike Legedza, Owner  Zoomed In, a video and surveillance company operating out of Southern Ontario, and catering to Commercial clientele.

Lessons for Others

While there may be no clear cut answer to the whole “should I, or shouldn’t I” when it comes to social media and recruiting, one thing’s for certain and that is the use of social media should continue it’s upward trajectory, and therefore make it a viable avenue for recruiters to leverage when seeding out potential fits.

With how fast things are evolving in today’s social space, in order to stay ahead of the competition companies must adapt their processes, or face the inevitable truth of being left behind. Recruiters, on their part, must be efficient in the way they search out talent, capitalize on passive candidate engagement, and perhaps not get too caught up in someone’s opinion on a topic, when said opinion is forcefully structured in 140 characters or less.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

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