Companies to Move Towards Social Recruiting
May 22, 2009 by Alice Allan
Results of an annual survey by US company Jobvite have suggested a shift away from recruiting methods such as job boards, with many companies instead planning to focus their energy on social recruiting.
The survey, completed by approximately 440 human resources and recruitment professionals, reveled 76 percent plan to invest more in employee referrals, while 72 percent said they plan to invest more in recruiting through social networks.
72 percent of the companies surveyed say they plan to invest less in third party recruiting firms, and 57 percent plan to put less money towards advertising on job boards. Campus recruiting may also take a hit, with 21 percent of respondents stating they plan to invest less in that area. 11 percent plan to invest less in social networks, while 8 percent plan to put less towards employee referrals.
Online social recruiting methods currently used by the companies surveyed include LinkedIn, which grew in use from 80 percent in 2008 to 95 percent in 2009, and Facebook, which jumped from 36 percent in 2008 to 59 percent in 2009. Twitter was the third most used social media tool, with 42 percent using it to recruit candidates. 17 percent of respondents said they did not use social networking or social media to support their recruitment efforts.
Jobvite president and CEO, Dan Finnigan, commented on the results:
“Companies are in a very different economic situation now than when our first Social Recruitment survey was conducted last year. Now, not only are recruiters engaged in social networks, they are investing in social recruitment in place of more costly and inefficient methods. The economy has spurred a fundamental change in how recruiters find candidates and how people find jobs. The good news is that referrals and social networks provide a high quality, low cost way to hire and for that reason social recruitment will continue to grow even as the economy improves.”
The survey results support Jobvite’s own focus, as the website recently integrated its “Software-as-a-Service” recruitment application with LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
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I think it’s amazing how rapidly Twitter has spread, and how well people have been able to leverage it to gain jobs.
Several companies seem to be jumping on the social recruiting bandwagon, such as Career Advantage. They provide a total CRM package that combines the best of social media and networking with a very easy and efficient way of managing, tracking, and following up with potential employers and candidates. These figures and statistics indicate the need for tools like these, that allow us to remain connected, and continue interacting with our networks.
It will be interesting to see how such companies embrace these new outlets.
I think that is a wonderful thing. And it is easy to understand why. Word of mouth
connections through people you know tend to allow you to be your self or let your hair down. The whole ritual that makes you feel like some number paralyzes me. Who can display any of their talents or personality under that big ritual that is used to separate applicant #999 from applicant #1000.