Recruitment: Social Media
Recruitment: how do you sell yourself as an employer?
A company is as strong as the staff that work there. Unemployment is currently low and many companies are trying to attract a fresh pool of talent. Especially in ICT, healthcare, technology and education where there is a shortage of staff. Vacancies are posted at random by recruiters and they lean back and wait for a candidate to join.
But often the job description is dry with a list of requirements for a ‘market-based salary’. Nobody will jump up and down about this. Especially when you consider that the best people are probably already at work. Yet they can also be ready for a new challenge if they are only pointed in the right direction and their interest is sufficiently stimulated. This is where the recruitment phenomenon comes in. What is recruitment and how do you sell yourself as an employer?
Recruitment in a digital jacket
Recruitment, in other words: recruitment and selection, is finding and attracting the perfect candidate to fill an open position, and just like many other processes, recruitment is taking place digitally.
In addition to websites that serve as a gathering place for vacancies, for example Monsterboard, social media is also increasingly involved with recruitment. Different platforms offer different possibilities and opportunities which makes it easier for companies to get vacancies to the right people. Here we examine a number of platforms and new developments.
LinkedIn has been active since 2002 making it the progenitor of all online networks that are about jobs. Members have an extensive profile with CV data and there is a personal news overview for articles, vacancies and other work related messages. The platform is still extremely popular yet not everyone realizes the big drawback of LinkedIn: it focuses purely on higher educated people. If you are looking for employees who are different or lower educated, you should look elsewhere.
Facebook Jobs
It becomes more interesting with the new Facebook Jobs. This branch of Facebook has been available in the Netherlands since May of this year. It is a simple but effective extension to the existing network: company pages can create vacancies. These are collected on the Jobs tab and are listed on the company page. Where does the real power lie? Vacancies can be shown just like advertisements in the news overview with the same opportunities for targeting and re-targeting. In addition, the vacancy can be responded to using a ready-made ‘apply now’ button that leads to a form. The form is also pre-filled with information from the applicant’s profile page.
All in all, two gigantic advantages are achieved in this way: applying for jobs becomes accessible, and your vacancy becomes visible for people who may not consciously seek a job but that fit your target group.
Google for Jobs
Google also does not lag behind the vacancy market. Since June 2017 Google for Jobs has been available in America. In the Netherlands it has not yet been rolled out, but we expect that this will not take too long.
Google for Jobs works as a widget within search results similar to Google Shopping. The vacancy is immediately shown to the searcher. To do this, the platform loads vacancies from websites that are neatly laid out with structured data. Google for Jobs is also directly linked to the most important job boards which provides a significant improvement in the accessibility and findability of vacancies.
More than being found
The world of recruitment is changing, and with more open vacancies the challenge is growing to find the right candidates. Internet giants Facebook and Google solve this by showing vacancies directly to specific users. The big difference is that at Google you are handed over to the algorithm, while as a recruiter at Facebook you can set a target group yourself.
Being found is important, but of course it does not stop there. The new vacancy platforms will help you find an interesting audience, but it is up to you to bring those candidates in. The vacancy must stand out and show immediately what you as an employer have to offer. This is where recruitment marketing takes place: where you sell your vacancy and your company as an employer to the candidate.
Are you looking for inspiration? Look at Blendle director Alexander Klöpping’s vacancy for a personal assistant. For the platforms described above the ad is too long and not structured. But it does stand out!
