Social networks have reached such popular heights because they fulfill a basic human need: to be connected to the rest of the world. Through social networking websites, users can create virtual communities that allow them to interact with like-minded people from all over the world. Due to the effectiveness of online communities in disseminating information, social networking websites have become indispensable tools in various industries. These days, HR social media is becoming the new trend for HR professionals. They can put the power of a social network to work on recruiting, employee engagement, increasing retention and more.
Recruitment with social networks
Recruitment and brand building is the biggest use of social media for human resources today. It is not common to find companies that hire through social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Human resource professionals are recruiting employees using LinkedIn and applying much the same principles that marketing and advertising use to attract a particular target audience.
Human resources can maximize the use of social networks with the right strategies. Here are a couple of tips to keep in mind.
Go to the right networks
There is no point in exploring social networks that do not meet your target demographic. For example, if you’re looking for someone to fit a high-level position, such as a product manager, it would save you time to steer clear of MySpace or other sites known to your younger subscribers. These networks are great if you’re looking to recruit summer interns, entry-level employees, or even part-time job seekers for college.
Recruiting employees using LinkedIn is a great idea because the site is known for having subscribers who are professionals. It’s a great search place if you’re looking for people with experience in pretty much any industry.
Take the time to search
It’s going to take some practice to learn the ropes of HR social media. For starters, you want to dominate the search across these networks, streamlining each search to ensure results are narrowed down to the best candidates. You want to avoid using broad searches because they return too many results that you couldn’t eliminate efficiently.
Move or lose!
It is also important to note that you are not the only organization or headhunter recruiting through social media. Others have begun to take advantage of this technique long before you have begun to explore it. Therefore, it is important that you act on a qualified candidate as soon as possible because other people will surely have their eyes on that potential employee as well.
To be professional
Even in cyberspace, looks are everything. If you’re going to put up a profile on Facebook or Twitter for recruiting, you want to maintain a degree of professionalism on your pages. It seems obvious to say, but it is also important to be kind. Don’t treat people rudely. Word of mouth works fast, especially in a diverse online community. You don’t want to be the subject of a blog post or YouTube video about how you were unprofessional with a particular applicant.
Using social media to promote employee engagement
According to studies, employee engagement can make your organization perform 2.6 times better than other companies. When employees are passionate about the company’s products and services, sales improve. Social media can have a huge impact on employee engagement, and more and more organizations are using it to increase engagement and engagement among workers.
By using social media, you can perform all three internal communication components of successful workforce engagement, i.e. TALK, LISTEN, and RESPOND. If Web 2.0 social media is successfully integrated into your company culture, you can instantly send positive team-building messages, reach all employees faster, and get immediate feedback.
Many successful companies (Shell, General Electric, Procter & Gamble) use Facebook to connect networks of employees who don’t have time to interact face-to-face every day. They don’t just trust this social network for instant messaging. More importantly, they use it to send messages that foster emotional attachment, commitment, and participation among employees; for example, stories about the company’s charitable activities, news about career growth opportunities, and recognition of exemplary performance. Social networks have a high success rate when it comes to generating engagement.
These are just a few of the many tips to keep in mind when working with social networking websites. But at the end of the day, it’s still important to remember that the best way to connect with your workforce is directly and in person.
