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How to use social media to screen and recruit

LinkedIn is (in many cases) a recruiter’s best friend for both recruiting and screening.  But LinkedIn is not the only social networking site that can be (or should be) leveraged during the hunt for the best possible employee.
Facebook is also a viable option.
Recruiting
Recruiters who use Facebook generally focus on the site when looking to fill entry-level and/or hourly positions; it is typically not the “go-to” platform for salaried, managerial or professional openings.
However, there is one point to make when talking about Facebook’s viability to recruit.  That is the enormous size of Facebook’s user base.  When you have a user base as large as Facebook’s, even your smallest demographic slice can be larger than your nearest competitor’s entire client list.  Chances are, if you candidate does not have a LinkedIn profile, he/she will probably have a Facebook page.   Therefore, you should visit Facebook.
Screening
Facebook is used a lot to screen job applicants, because you can get a more personal view of your candidates rather than a list of their accomplishments and skills (ala LinkedIn).
A recent survey on recruiters’ screening methods found that

  • Facebook was the most used social networking screening tool. Seventy-six percent of recruiters used Facebook to screen candidates; compared to 48% who used LinkedIn.
  • Recruiters screen early, with 47% going to social networking sites immediately after receiving a resume or application.
  • Social media matters.  Sixty nine percent of recruiters have rejected a candidate because of something they saw, and 68% have hired a candidate because of what they saw.

You may think that Facebook is not useful to the screening process, because – well – it does not show you the skills, experience and talents of the applicants you are interested in.  However, it helps you analyze their:

  • Judgment skills….Did they share confidential information? Did they post negative comments about a previous employer? Did they post inappropriate photos?
  • Communication skills…Are their posts littered with bad grammar and misspellings (beyond the typical smart phone autocorrect)?
  • Personality…Are they well-rounded? Will it fit with your corporate culture?
  • Creative skills…What is used as their profile photo? Their timeline photo?  Are they unique?

However….a word of caution. No social media site should be the only recruiting or screening tool you use.
Recruiters do look through Facebook  and LinkedIn to discover talent, and companies are creating “Now Hiring” Facebook pages and integrating “job” apps onto their current Facebook page.  But when recruiters leverage one recruiting mechanism to the exclusion of all others, they can miss out on an entire population of candidates.
When you are looking to expand your talent pool, you should leverage every single avenue available to you.   Part of that strategy should be to leverage the services of a local, reputable staffing firm like Job Store Staffing®.  We know how to recruit and we know how to screen.  So contact us today. If you are looking for recruiters in Denver CO, contact us today.

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