Social Media Recruitment Strategy
Each recruitment channel has to be included in the recruitment strategy. The social media stuffing is different and the separate strategy should be designed and implemented. The social recruitment is about building active and proactive communities and it is not just about posting vacancies at the right time and at the right recruitment channel. The social media recruitment strategy has to define the position of the organization, the topics and the personas of the target audiences.
The social media recruitment is not just another recruitment channel. Social media changes the philosophy of the recruitment in the organization. The social recruitment cannot exist without openness and willingness to discuss with the engaged community. The social recruitment does not impact only Human Resources and the recruitment process. The entire organization has to accept the goal to hire the best hidden talents. Each department has to contribute to the social discussion. The discussion starts from the top, the CEO has to be externally visible and has to be engaged in communities and discussions. The organization has to contribute.
The social staffing can reach unreachable job applicants. Many young university graduates do not search for the challenging job using the traditional online recruitment channels. They want the recommendation from their friends and their fellow communities. This is a huge opportunity for social media and the organization needs to utilize the full potential. It has to build its competitive advantage.
The social media recruitment strategy defines the key imperatives for the social recruitment process in the organization:
- required job positions;
- target audiences;
- personas representing target audiences;
- right channels (social websites and social services) to build engaged communities;
- tactics to engage employees in the positive external social communication;
- measurement and dedicate the social recruitment budget;
- roles and responsibilities;
- processes.
The organization needs to identify the targeted job positions and the audiences to be present at. It is the most difficult tasks during the development of the strategy. The decision about right social media used is much easier, if the target audiences are identified. Each target audience should be represented by a simple persona, which associates different different personality profiles. The organization has to aim for few personas. It has to be clearly focused.
The development of the solid and robust recruitment strategy is a key to the successful recruitment on social networks. The organization has to define its approach and it has to be consistent over a longer period of time. The social recruitment does not deliver job applicants from the Day One. The engaged community does not grow quickly.