The worst in ‘spray and pray recruiting’ or an under-developed tool – does Twitter have a role in recruitment?
In a recent post on his blog, Jonathan Rice acknowledged that Twitter was a unique ‘communication channel’ but he suggested that it was not, necessarily, adapted to effective recruitment. “[Recruitment] is about generating the highest quality of applicant. Often that requires a far more targeted, specific, sourcing approach than casting a job tweet out into the void – the ultimate in spray and pray recruiting,” he wrote. To successfully adapt Twitter to his or her purposes, a recruiter would have to spend time developing their online brand, he argued.
Ben Irving, CEO – Jobs.co.nz, suggested that the issue was that people did not know how to exploit the channel properly. “I believe a large number of people haven’t invested the time needed to understand the power of Twitter and how their personal brand and company can seamlessly merge to bring about great results in attracting talent to the right place,” he said.
For Irving, using Twitter well as a recruiter is a three-step process. First, you have to establish an online presence, then you have to gain an understanding of your followers, and then develop an appropriate strategy, which itself has three parts. “The first one is, we have key conversations with Twitter followers when we like their CV, or we like the way they talk, or we like how talented they look,” Irving described.
The second part involves ‘calls to action’ – sending out a Tweet to encourage people to visit an organisation’s employment site. “We would very seldom tweet a specific role or job ad,” Irving added. And the third part is keeping tabs on and interacting with people on the Twitter stream. “People forget that it’s a constant conversation that never stops,” Irving observed.
Donna Kerrison, general manager – Maori Pacific Jobs, agrees that Twitter should be used to develop a brand that appeals to a particular audience. “Te Rūnunga o Ngāi Tahu tend to reTweet all of our Christchurch vacancies to their audiences, and not just the Iwi’s jobs. It’s about spreading the reach to specific, targeted audiences,” she said.
Kerrison’s organisation is ‘voracious’ in its use of Twitter, tweeting all of their Maori and Pasifika job vacancies. She lauded Twitter for its immediacy and reach. “Followers no longer have to wait for the daily newspaper to be published to then search through it and start the application process. Our followers on Twitter resend our posts to their whānau / family members and/or friends alerting them to a vacancy that’s particular relevant to that individual,” she said.
