Recruiting in the age of Social Media

Web2.0 is the collective name for a lot of technologies by which people can interact with other people (and organizations) on the web, publicly and in a transparent manner. It can include forums, blogs, twitter, linkedin, facebook, orkut  etc.

Social Recruiting is the new buzzword.

So what can an organization do specially in the staffing area?

Here are some thoughts:

1. The staffing group of any company can use these tools to reach out to prospective candidates and create a ready talent pool – for example Sapient India has a lot of recruiters who actively look at growing their network on Linkedin. Recruiters can use Linkedin status updates and also Q&A to showcase opportunities that exist in their organizations.
2. Like Microsoft in the US has shown – blogging can be a great way to engage readers with what roles are happening and what positions are open – and how to prepare for an interview. Check post on employees are marketers in the age of social media
3. Twitter becomes a great medium to share news and information with people who choose to follow you – and making it relevant for their use.
4. On a different note advertising using Google Adwords is a great way for reaching out to people interested in their domain/industry – specially passive candidates.
5. Making a facebook page and Orkut community are other tools that businesses can do to engage talented candidates in conversation.
6. In fact in my view someone in the Marketing/Recruiting function needs to take a “Talent Community Manager” role to drive these initiatives – and to get others internally in the organization to get engaged with the candidate community
   1. This community manager needs to have a mindset of open and honest collaboration and organizations must be clear about what objectives they expect from her/him and therefore what metrics to track to check his/her performance.

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