Nowadays, the recruiter functions in a different reality than a decade ago, when ‘tweeting’ (posting on Twitter) was not associated with the Internet and when advertising on the job-boards was considered innovative.
The arrival of social media and their dynamic development considerably influenced the image of the talent acquisition.
The process of change in ongoing.
What is the specificity of the changes? This question deserves a detailed explanation.
It is worth reminding how the recruitment process looked like when the social media just started existing. This will be a subject of another article.
The changes came in 2004 but the scale of the changes was to rise. It was when a student of Harvard – Mark Zuckerberg created an Internet portal called Facebook. It is not the right time to tell the whole story, though interesting and captivating. Suffice it to say that during those eight years the portal has become the global range society which gathers a billion of users and has had a key impact on the appearance and development of other portals. Some of the portals, despite the intended rather general character, are used by recruiters during the process.
The simple way comes down to advertising for the available posts. However, it is only the foretaste of the possibilities which social media have to offer. The functioning on Facebook requires creating company’s profile, a so-called fan page. The activity is not only demonstrated by advertising for jobs but also by providing original and attractive content on a regular basis. In this way, it is possible to reach a wider audience. The key to the effective use of Twitter is finding the best and the most accurate key words which will enable reaching the precise group of candidates.
In the last decade the web portals gathering exclusively professionals have emerged. Despite the fact that the portals such as LinkedIn or Goldenline do not have such impressive results as the Zuckerberg’s project, they are the effective tools used in the sourcing as well as in the everyday job of the personal consultant.
It is worth to mention that the use of the social media differ in case of the company which is independently looking for new employees from the recruitment agency’s activities.
In the first case the base activities are to establish a good profile of the company by building company’s brand (employer branding). The next article will be devoted to it.
In the second case, the portals gathering people solely for the professional purposes are particularly helpful. Those sites are an irreplaceable source of knowledge about the potential candidates. The analysis of the person’s career path enables the initial assessment. Thanks to the fact that the professionals sign in there, the recruiter can immediately contact potentially valuable candidates. The bigger the personal consultant’s network of contacts, the greater the possibilities. The professional consultant has to have a complete and clear profile in order to be credible and look competent. Another possibility of reaching the candidates is created by the Internet forums or discussion groups which are designed by the users. The presence and activity of the personal consultants in such groups makes them more trustworthy.
There is no denying that the recruitment, like many other aspects of the reality has changed its face under the influence of social media. At the same time the recruiter has gained a wide range of opportunities which have their pros and cons. Which ones? You will see in the second part of the article.
You must be logged in to post a comment.