Sustainable Solutions Series Edition #5: Social Media

How can you utilise digital to attract and retain talent, rather than by simply raising salaries?

In response to recent Labour Market Statistics, this series will offer some examples of ways in which recruiters and employers can keep well resourced during periods of low candidate availability. In this, the fifth in our series, we explore the value of recruiting via social media.

Recruitment magazine The Recruiter advised that word of mouth is the most effective way of promoting your business and products, but social media can take it one step further. As we know, we must take advantage of this channel as candidates become more digitally adept; 15 million people in the UK are on LinkedIn, the recruiter’s main platform, so if you promote your company and your employer brand via social media, it will not only reach more of your target audience, it will also establish you as a modern, adaptable business, in tune with the rhythms of communication of today. Currently, 29% of candidates now use social media as their primary tool for job seeking, and 92% of companies use or plan to use social media for recruiting. In the face of these numbers, recruiters need to take advantage of this tool.

By recruiting and promoting your employer brand via social media, you can make the most of:

• The best way to reach passive candidates
• An easy way for candidates to communicate with your company using a medium they’re comfortable with
• An accessible resource of information
• Access to the new online generation, who will become your future customer base
• Personalising your business by giving it a voice
• Reducing time-to-hire
• Increasing both the quantity and quality of applications
• Increasing staff referrals
• … and it’s mostly free! Of course, premier membership of networks such as LinkedIn requires a fee, but the world of social media is probably the quickest way to post new jobs to thousands of potential applicants without paying a penny.

Consistent, attractive social media activity takes time to build and maintain, but as your online presence grows and develops, you can sit back and allow social ‘sharing’ to do its work. Social media, as an alternative method of attraction and retention to just raising salaries, has proved to be one of the most successful strategies. A company is often judged as a potential employer by its online presence; the efficiency and consistency of your online activity reflects how the business operates on all levels. Businesses should not underestimate how much their online profile says about them; if we weren’t meant to judge a book by its cover, it wouldn’t have one.

Want us to do it all for you? Call our Client Services Director Steve Phillips on 0117 312 6767 or steve.phillips@resource-management.co.uk who will be able to offer you a social media solution tailored to your specific needs and style.