On the surface, many of the technologies that could be classified as “social networks” or that soon-to-be-very-tired moniker “Web 2.0” might appear to be tactical in nature in their talent acquisition applications. Someone tweets, someone else follows, and hopefully the follower clicks through to whatever website or job posting is referenced. A fan page is created for a company on Facebook, people choose to “become a fan”, and again, hopefully they click through to websites and job postings that are referenced. If that’s all your organization is doing, then perhaps these really are simply tactical tools. They might even be working for you!
On the other hand, some recruitment pros are at a bit of a loss as to how these tools can or will help them. In some cases, there’s a high probability that they won’t. I know, I know, that’s a bit of sacrilege coming from a talent management consultant. But it’s true!
Think about it.
Let’s assume your primary objective for using social tools is recruiting. If your dream candidates are twentysomethings just entering the job market, you might be in luck. If you’re looking for middle and senior managers above the age 45, the likelihood of their participation in social networks drops dramatically. If you hire high-volume hourly workers you may be better off running an SMS campaign versus blogging in a membership-only website. If you’re hiring creatives and you’re not keeping your message current and frequently updated, you may do more damage than good. Demographics are just one aspect that will help you gauge the value of spending time and precious branding capital on social networks will pay dividends.
A more foundational question is whether or not you’ve given thought to the strategy behind your social networking efforts. Did you just sign up for Twitter to spew out links to your applicant tracking system? Or did you think through what it is you want to accomplish first? This doesn’t have to be a challenging task. Here’s a simple thought process in 7 steps:
- What are our organization’s corporate (non-HR) goals?
- What does our workforce plan look like in relation to those corporate goals?
- Where do we have talent gaps based on our workforce plan?
- What kinds of technology are attractive to the types of candidates we need?
- What level of resource commitment are we willing to make?
- How will we keep our content fresh?
- When do we start?
As you can see, each question leads to a slightly less strategic, slightly more tactical next question. By tying questions 2-7 to question 1, you’re more likely to get leadership (read: budget) buy in. And in the end, you’re better positioned to pick social networking tools that will actually accomplish something specific, as opposed to merely (hopefully) increasing applications.
You’re also more likely to achieve that magical payoff we all wish we could get: proof that you were successful. If you are interested in learning more, consider attending our webinar on the subject at the Talent Acquisition Strategy for Business Impact Learning Track: We Get It, We Should Tweet - Is That a Business Strategy?
Tuesday, March 16th at 2pm, with a series of recasts to follow.
