It is 2021, every business is understaffed, and every employee is overworked. Somehow, everyone needs a job, and no one is hiring, but every place is hiring, and there are no applicants! Unless you are a teenager looking to work any minimum-wage fast-food job, the job market is not exactly booming at the moment for employers or employees. So, your business is struggling to hire labor. You’ve increased wages, provided benefits, and have built an inclusive purpose-driven culture. Yet, you are still struggling to find quality employees? Maybe it is time to do a pulse check on your hiring practices. What is the first course of action when you know your company needs a new employee, or maybe several new people? Do you send in an ad in the paper? Post on your business Facebook page? Perhaps even tape an old-school “Help Wanted!” sign on community bulletin boards? And then wait for the applications to start flying in. Recruiters need to take an active approach to hire. Simply putting the offer out in the world and hoping the right person comes along seldomly occurs. You don’t go into the middle of the ocean and throw out a fishing line and hope for dinner to come along. You learn the best spots for what you are hoping to catch and go at the correct times. Recruiting new employees is no different. Leveraging social recruiting is like finding a lake filled with catfish. There is a much better chance you’ll leave victorious than dropping a line in a possibly empty river. Suppose your company already advertises new positions on its social media page, but your vacancies are not getting submissions. In that case, your hiring tools may be to blame. Developing a thorough strategy is critical for making the most of your recruiting efforts.
According to Smart Recruiters, “social recruiting refers to the process of recruiting candidates through social media platforms, like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other websites, including online forums, job boards, and blogs.” As in many aspects of business, a solid social media presence and public relations strategy have proven beneficial to the companies that invest in it. A study conducted by the Aberdeen Group concluded that 73% of people aged 18-34 landed on their most recent job through social media. Half of the battle is public relations, making your brand mean something to people. The other half is all on recruiters. Research by the Pew Research Center shows that Americans are always on social media and specific demographics use certain platforms more than others. This gives recruiters and public relations a starting point for the recruitment process and explains why social media recruiting can be so much more efficient than traditional online recruiting such as Indeed.
LinkedIn is a social media platform dedicated to networking and the professional job market and is a viable option for many companies. LinkedIn hiring statistics report over 75% of people who recently moved jobs used LinkedIn to assist in the switch. So you are on social media, now what? One of the goals of social recruiting is to reach active and passive candidates. Active candidates are looking for a job and can be easy to find. Passive candidates are not proactively looking for a new company. Still, they are open to leaving their current position for something better. LinkedIn has many helpful features to identify candidates with desirable skills and experience, and once you find these candidates, it is time to engage. Sending a private message to prospective candidates can establish a solid line of communication and lead to a new employee. At the very least, they are another qualified candidate in your company’s social network that may refer your business to other qualified candidates. The same approach can be taken on Facebook and Instagram. The bottom line is to directly engage with your audience. Respond to comments and private messages, take the extra second to include their first name, and make the response friendly, personal, and less mechanical. Personal responses play a role in the larger goal of humanizing your company and echoing your corporate culture to your audience. Including current employees in social recruiting efforts can go a long way in developing meaningful relationships with potential hires and ‘prove’ to them just how fantastic your organization really is.
If you have exhausted your recruiting efforts, but your business is still not getting the application traffic you expected, maybe we need to look back at square one. Why wouldn’t someone want to work with your company? There are many nuances to hiring practices and reasons why your positions are not being filled. The Miner Agency may be the ticket that opens the doors to many new recruits by taking a third-party objective review of your hiring practices, work environment, and company culture, amongst many more aspects, to provide you with specific recommendations for your company and grow your business.
