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The current state of the US job market is an ongoing pain point for entrepreneurs and hiring managers across the nation. Companies face hardship as they struggle to fill empty and even new positions for multiple reasons.

Some of these reasons include 4.5 million workers voluntarily resigning from their jobs between November 2020 and March 2022,1 contributing to the staggering 11.4 million US job openings.2 The high percentage of workers transitioning industries further complicates the market.

While these reasons help to explain the national worker shortage, companies still need to learn how to adapt. The job market is not what it used to be, and instead of getting discouraged, it’s time to get curious about how to best pivot with it.

Your company has likely posted open positions on job board sites and LinkedIn. However, we encourage you not to stop your efforts there. Enter social media recruitment strategies—today’s most savvy way to showcase your company culture via social media and network with prospective job candidates. Your social media presence is an opportunity for job seekers to ‘window shop,’ see what positions are available, and determine whether they see themselves as a good fit.

Research supports that 86% of job seekers look to social media when conducting a job search, and 92% of employers use social media and online professional networks to hire talent.3 These numbers overwhelmingly support that social media recruitment is a necessary tool in today’s market.

Here are the best ways to implement social media recruitment strategies to find and sign the best talent for your company.

Refining Your Recruitment Social Strategy

Solidify Your Employer Brand

Before you can gain momentum, you’ll need to make sure your employer brand is solid. Your employer branding platform is made up of powerful tools that help market your company to current and prospective employees. Use this checklist to determine where your company stands on each of the key components of an effective platform. Think about which areas are strengths for your team and which present opportunities for improvement.

  • Employer branding: mission, story, values, reasons to join the team
  • Social media presence: profiles, team and culture content, company updates
  • Recruitment strategy: dedicated careers webpage, clear job descriptions, recruitment channels
  • Onboarding experience: clear expectations, adequate training, regular check-ins
  • Employee satisfaction: competitive salaries, benefits, career paths, teambuilding initiatives
  • Employee advocacy: referral programs, satisfaction surveys, employee website testimonials

Having a handle on all of these elements means your company is working hard to continually evolve as an employer and demonstrate your growth to others. But there’s always room for improvement. Take the time to consider how you run your business and what image you want to convey to employees and job seekers.

Use this official Employer Branding Checklist to properly assess your recruitment readiness.

Go Beyond LinkedIn

LinkedIn is notorious because it works; however, it’s not the final frontier of recruiting. Once you have created a job post on LinkedIn, take the link, and share it on Facebook, Instagram, and other platforms. If you have the budget, this would be an excellent opportunity to circulate ads on LinkedIn and Facebook.

A budget-friendly alternative would be to reach out to relevant colleges and universities, asking to feature your link in their job posting listservs and newsletters. You may get an invite to join and make an employer profile on the university’s networking site. For example, many universities use Handshake. You can encourage prospective applicants to apply and connect on social within these funnels.

An added benefit to this avenue is networking with students and alumni job seekers. Schools with prolific career centers often have alumna use their resources to aid the job search, so there will be professionals of various skill levels in these networks. If someone on your team is an alumna, this is an opportunity to consider attending job fairs, info sessions, and webinars. Throughout this process, you can curate relationships with professors and career counselors, who can send talent your way.

Encourage Employee Engagement

Having strong employee engagement speaks to a healthy company culture. Employees interacting with your social platforms pulls more weight than you would expect. Studies support that prospective job candidates rank current employees as the most trusted source when it comes to information about a company. Ranked after was information from former job applicants and former employees. Applicants want to hear from employees before they want to hear from executives and the c-suite. This relates to relatability and overall trust that they are getting the most objective review possible.4

This says a lot, and prospective employees want to know what they’re getting into before they get too far into the application process or forgo other opportunities. Social media can be used effectively as a brochure showing the best aspects of your culture and employee engagement. Post your values, mission, and how your team and organization actively apply those in their everyday work.

Support employee advocacy and make it fun for employees to follow and interact with your company’s accounts. This can be a great way to increase involvement, build camaraderie, and generate a following. Post content that speaks to the human side of your company. Include fun aspects of your team’s day-to-day operations, company milestones, teambuilding events, and celebrations.

Your social media space is an opportunity to pat your organization on the back and celebrate your team’s leadership, growth, and achievements. Applaud and celebrate promotions and years of service. This makes employees feel appreciated and shows that you’re an organization with a growth mindset.

Practice Consistency

Post regularly, and don’t wait too long in-between posts. Regular posting or social calendar is a great way to keep your feed fresh. Keeping design and messaging uniform across platforms is essential to staying consistent.

Another aspect of consistency is promptly responding to engagement, such as likes, comments, DMs, and tags. Keep notifications on so you can get back to prospective applicants and answer their questions ASAP. This is especially important in the realm of recruitment. Ideally, you want to get off social and into an interview process sooner than later.

Use Measurables

Use tools to track traffic, applicant conversions, and engagement. Take advantage of the data and revise your approach as needed. Best practices and posting times on different social media platforms based on your target audience may vary. However, being flexible and proactive is always a great place to start.

Provide a Link

Give your prospective applicants a form to fill out with their contact information, attach a resume, and offer availability for an informational interview. Keep this in your bio for people to easily access.

Showcase Your Value

Why should people want to work for your company? What separates you from similar organizations of your size? Leverage your employer brand strategy to share content about your unique benefits and how you offer your employees flexibility and ways to improve their quality of life. Reference these if you have any awards for workplace achievements or high ratings on employee review apps. Treat these as bonus credentials!

Start Attracting Talent Today

Social media is here to stay, so we strongly recommend embracing its recruitment capabilities. This guide provides you with the proper framework for successfully integrating social media into your hiring practices. We believe that launching your social media recruitment strategy will solve hiring pain points and attract the best talent fits for your company. Need an employer brand strategy and social media recruitment support? Get started today.

Sources:

  1. https://www.uschamber.com/workforce/understanding-americas-labor-shortage
  2. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.nr0.htm
  3. https://www.careerarc.com/social-media-recruiting/
  4. https://www.careerarc.com/blog/future-of-recruiting-study-infographic/

The post Social Media Recruitment: Optimizing Your Hiring Leads appeared first on Marketing Insider Group.