Earlier today I received an email from a manager and still cannot find the words to explain how overjoyed I was with the content. Within the email was a LinkedIn connection request received from a very eager individual, keen to connect and make himself known to the business. What makes me smile even more is that the individual’s skills were suited to a different area of the business than that of the Manager he had contacted, and with this in mind the Manager had chosen not to ignore and focus on his own department’s needs, but to be proactive and highlight the individual to me, the Recruitment Manager. Wow – it’s a major breakthrough and one I will be sharing with my Director as a key success for the year so far!
Here are my top reasons why your hiring managers should be social…
Social Reason 1: Helping to bringing the employer brand to life.
If this manager has impressed you as much as me; the thought of a business full of confident, socially engaged individuals will completely blow your mind also – think how advantageous this would be, not only to Recruiters attracting talent, but to the business as a whole. Marketing a business cannot be the sole responsibility of the marketing team, it lies on the business as a whole to share the brand’s message and make it come alive.
Social Reason 2: Share, retweet, repeat…
Social media has changed how active jobseekers search for vacancies as well as encouraging the passive candidate. The Recruitment Team will cover all of the traditional routes of candidate attraction (job boards etc) however Managers need to be prepared to get involved and widen the visibility of the advert. Wouldn’t it make sense for the Manager to share the vacancy with their connections, all of which are most likely to be in the same field as the vacancy or know someone who would be interested? Simply sharing a vacancy with their network is all it takes!
Social Reason 3: Research
In many cases candidates will research a company prior to making an application and will make a decision due to the information they can find quickly – usually a company’s social footprint is the deciding factor. For some individuals this is absolutely key and if you want to attract the very best talent and ensure they apply then managers need to take an active role in ensuring good quality content is out there. The Manager’s profile will more than likely be part of the candidate’s research so good quality activity is key to standing out from the competition.
Unfortunately to some, social media is seen as quite scary. They simply don’t see the impact and importance it has on candidate attraction and shy away from learning how easy it can be to pick up and use.
The Manager I mentioned above was once like that – encouragement is all that’s needed and you too could have major breakthrough like me! I’m now off to celebrate….
By Amy Sutcliffe
