By: Maurice Gilbert
Corporate culture is one of the most important elements to communicate to job seekers. Prospective hires want to know about your company’s culture and often this detail is one of the hardest to learn during routine research. An effective way to convey culture to the masses (and more specifically, to top talent!) is through social media.
Of the 72 percent of organizations using social media as a part of their recruiting repertoire, a mere 55 percent believe they’re using social media effectively in this capacity, according to a recent survey by Human Capital Institute. Steve Cadigan, former VP of Talent at LinkedIn, and so a bit of a social media expert himself, confirms these organization’s suspicions, saying he’s seen “a lot of companies taking a wait-and-see approach or just dabbling.”
And companies’ practices when it comes to using social media for recruiting purposes has to extend beyond simply posting job openings to Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. The real benefit comes from building a talent pool and using these networking platforms to showcase the company’s culture and values in a manner that will draw prospective candidates in. The idea is to lead with the culture, using job postings as a lesser component of the social media strategy.
So the real question becomes, how do we draw in top talent via social media? Cadigan stresses using the company’s social media pages to tell a story about the organization, its mission and vision and its distinguishing characteristics. Consider these ideas to that end:
• Videos of a “day in the life” at your company.
• Posts highlighting events for employees.
• Expanding the social-recruiting outreach efforts to include all employees for a less “manufactured” feel.
Maurice Gilbert is Managing Partner of Conselium Executive Search which specializes in placing Compliance Officers and Regulatory Counsel for clients in the U.S., Europe, Latin America and Asia Pacific. Maurice can be reached at www.conselium.com or maurice@conselium.com.
