In today's digital age, we're accustomed to being 'switched on' all the time
In today’s digital age, we’re accustomed to being ‘switched on’ all the time. Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter – they’re the new world order and we’re helpless in to resist their lure.
It makes sense then, that HR leaders are now looking to these social media giants to see how they can help improve their recruitment strategy.
We spoke to Sara Cooper, talent director at OMERS Ventures – and panellist at our upcoming webinar ‘HR guide to social media recruitment’, who explained the emerging importance of social media in recruitment.
“Social media has become such an integral part of recruitment because of the ease in which it allows companies to build their employment brand as well as directly interact with potential candidates,” she told us.
“That ease of use, however, is a bit of a double-edged sword because many companies don’t approach it as strategically as they should.
“Like most other things, it’s not a “one size fits all” solution. You need to critically look at your organization, your employees and the roles that you need to fill to decide what will work best as an overall strategy and then tweak it for individual roles.
“For example, you may decide to use several different channels to build your employment brand but only interact directly with candidates on one of them. You may also decide to use specific channels only for particular roles or you may even decide that you’ll have more luck using a traditional recruitment method versus a social media channel.”
With all this emerging technology balancing on our fingertips, it falls to employers to act responsibly in regards to AI. So how can leaders navigate their way around candidate data without overstepping the mark?
“A company also needs to balance their want or need to reduce a recruiter’s workload with their responsibility to provide potential and current candidates with a good experience when interacting with the company,” added Cooper.
“An over reliance on tech, especially at the beginning of the process, could result in promising candidates being rejected or a missed opportunity to really sell the candidate on the company or opportunity.
“A good thing to ask when considering new technology is who it will benefit. Not every tool has to benefit both sides equally, however, if it’s benefiting the company at the expense of the candidate, that’s a good reason to re-evaluate the use case.”
Remember, technology and AI are gifts – so use them ethically and avoid an Orwellian-style nightmare in your workplace.