#Hiring - The Rise of Social Recruitment

AMANDA BROWN

this is a low-value activity should try telling that to the people struggling to get away for their Easter break because of a lack of baggage handlers, or to farmers unable to get their produce picked or hoteliers without chefs or waiting staff.

Depicting the individuals who specialise in order to do this work as presumptuous dullards is perhaps what got us into these situations in the first place. A country should indeed encourage young people to excel and be great at things that are important, and roles in human resource management are high on that list.

As Dr. Houldsworth mentions, recruitment is a huge part of HR. Businesses are always reliant on people, and who a business hires can make the difference between a successful company and a failed venture. Hiring practices are changing with technology. AI can be used to scrape through a pile of resumes, searching for keywords at the most basic level, to determine if a candidate is qualified. Additionally, social media is becoming increasingly important in hiring. Platforms such as LinkedIn are the most obvious example of this, but social recruitment is now occurring on many platforms, from Twitter to Instagram. Amanda Brown is a mentor at Finito who specialises in in crafting LinkedIn profiles which showcase a student’s education, experience, skills, qualities and aspirations in a concise manner. She has also seen the rise of social recruitment and the effects that it will have on the hiring process. Brown breaks down the new practice, and offers advice for those trying to navigate this new recruitment landscape.

The term ‘social recruitment’ has gradually seeped into business language as recruitment and HR departments take advantage of social media platforms and online forums for sharing career opportunities. According to research from Cybercrew, the average amount of time spent on social media is 102 minutes a day. Sharing job opportunities on platforms where potential candidates are already active makes good business sense. Recruiting via social media helps reach a younger audience who expect a strong online presence from companies. In addition, a company may attract passive candidates who are not actively seeking new opportunities and also sharing career-related posts helps to improve the reputation a company has as an employer - their employer brand. In a hard-pressed labour market, with shortages across many sectors, from professional services through to hospitality, employers are keen to use every avenue possible to attract high quality candidates, and social media adds to the mix.

Organic social recruitment

The term ‘organic’ social media refers to the posting of updates to company pages and personal profiles free of charge. Simply post a description of the vacancy, accompanied by an image or video, and a link to the careers page on the website. LinkedIn and Twitter are the platforms of choice for B2B organisations, whereas Facebook pages and groups are invaluable for local jobs, and for the B2C market, Instagram may be the social media site of choice.

These job-related posts can be amplified using social media advocacy whereby current employees reshare them with their own personal, online networks. According to LinkedIn, the network of a company’s workforce is 10 times that of the LinkedIn company page, and some employees may have several thousand connections.

If the manager of the company’s LinkedIn page uses the ‘Notify employees’ function, employees are notified of the post the HR or recruitment department wants to share. Regular communications between the marketing department and those responsible for recruitment will ensure the jobs posts are timely.

Having a current employee record a short video about their experience of working in a company is a very powerful draw for applicants and a cleverly scripted video can be reused in multiple situations.The video taken on a smartphone or, if budget allows, one that is professionally produced.

#Hiring

For active LinkedIn users involved in the recruitment process, adding the #Hiring outer ring to their profile picture is a simple way to indicate that there are career openings. Adding hashtags to posts is also advisable as candidates frequently use them as search terms when looking for job opportunities. It is therefore worthwhile spending time researching which ones are most popular in specific industry sectors and for different roles.

Paid social recruitment

In addition to sharing posts in the usual way, launching an advertising campaign, where adverts are listed in the news feeds of social media users, is another alternative. Using the targeting and filters available on the social media advertising platforms means that adverts are only shown to highly relevant audiences. ‘Stopping the scroll’ by using eye-catching images or video helps the advert to shine out on the screen.

Another ‘paid-for’ route is LinkedIn’s jobs’ listing function which allows candidates to search for and apply directly on the platform.

In conclusion, whether the organic or paid route is chosen, having up-to-date, enticing company profiles on all social media platforms is an essential part of being a successful social recruiter. Regular posting of content which demonstrates the company values their employees will help attract high-quality candidates, reduce the cost of recruitment and speed up the hiring process.

From the outside looking in, the structure of companies can seem bewildering. In this article, the Head of Public Affairs at BDB Pitman, Stuart Thomson explains the ways in which the Public Policy department works with HR and business development across a typical organisation.

All organisations come with their own jargon, language, and structures. Understanding all that can be a full-time role. Public affairs can play a critical role, but it may not be talked about or can be a small part of a larger practice area. So, what it is all about and why should you take it seriously?

The work a public affairs team focuses on involves influencing public policy outcomes. That means fundamentally knowing their way around policy making including politics, politicians, and Parliament. They are the people who know how government works.

The foundation of any good public affairs operation should be to use the information, insight and intelligence gathered to play an active role in an organisation’s operations.

An effective public affairs team, for instance, uses their political knowledge and understanding to inform an organisation’s assessment and management of risk. Politicians and government can bring attention to an issue but, crucially, also have the power to inflict operational damage.

But it is not all down beat, good political insight can bring potential market and commercial opportunities with government as well.

The public affairs operation may stand alone or can sit within a wider communications department which may itself be called external affairs. It can be part of a marketing function. For other organisations, it reports into the head of legal. There is no right or wrong organisational structure as long as its voice can be heard. It should all be about the constructive role it plays and how best it can engage and feed into the work of other parts of the organisation. In particular, that means having a role in the wider reputation management of an organisation. Having a strong reputation is critical with a range of audiences, not least political ones. Developing a strong reputation takes time, effort and resources and the public affairs team should have a critical role. Not least, it needs an organisation to consider all aspects of its delivery against the standards expected of itself.That can mean difficult and challenging conversations but unless any gap between ‘saying and ‘doing’ is removed then there is a potential for reputational damage.

Any public affairs role is also well positioned to help grow a reputation through, for instance, thought leadership which can be tied into political and policy development.There are obvious ways in which a public affairs team can work closely with different parts of an organisation.

Let’s take the HR function, for instance. Public affairs may have a role in the internal communications of an organisation so there is a direct relationship with HR. Public affairs will be very aware of the need for employees to act, sometimes vocally, as champions for an organisation. They are your best advocates. Employee relations and governance are also critical elements of an organisation’s reputation.

Government and politicians always want to know how well run any organisation is, but employee relations are often an area where a ‘say-do’ gap can emerge, and rhetoric and reality diverge.

So, whilst HR and public affairs fulfil different roles they often need to work together.This can also happen if something goes wrong. If someone on the management team were to misbehave then HR obviously needs to lead but the communications and reputation management are critical as well.

So, what about the skills needed to be part of a good public affairs team?

Firstly, it is about being a policy navigator and understanding how policy is made and what the processes are, as well as the audiences.

Secondly, you need to be a strategy developer - that is, able to develop a public affairs strategy, pulling in the information and knowledge needed to do so. Thirdly, it helps to be a communications expert. That will include, everything from message development through to being able to work with the channels needed to get out to audiences.

Other things are important too. You need to be an audience engager, and have the ability to know and understand stakeholder audiences so that you can identify what drives them, how to communicate with them and how to work with them over a potentially prolonged period. It's also key to be a risk analyser, and possess the ability to consider a raft of information, as well as knowing and understanding politics, to identify potential risks. But also, how they should be addressed as well.

That's not all. You also need to be a networker – both inside and outside of the confines of work. It also helps to be a partnership developer, with the ability to work with a range of audiences, outside of politics as well, to build appropriate coalitions of interest.

So look out for the public affairs in your organisation, you may wish to work with them. They can be hugely useful.