The war for talent is back with a vengeance. Survey after survey shows that the acquisition of talent is now one of the key items on the agenda of chief executives around the world.
However, it seems the task of recruiting is becoming ever harder.
Witness, for example, Manpower’s latest Annual Talent Shortage survey, where 36 per cent of employers globally reported shortages.
The gap is even more pronounced when it comes to digital skills. A report from telecoms group O2 shows that 750,000 additionally digitally skilled workers are required in the UK by 2017 in order to capitalise on a £12 billion economic opportunity.
Meanwhile, a report from Forester shows that 58 per cent of companies are finding it difficult to attract and recruit digital talent.
As this interesting book on modern recruitment techniques notes, recruiters need to be social media-savvy to appeal to compete for the attention of millennials and Gen Ys.
With Gen Zs (those born after 1995) now hitting adulthood, it’s a problem that’s set to intensify.
Candidate behaviours are changing fast, from the way they communicate with people to the platforms on which they engage.
Companies need to understand this and make changes in their technologies and processes in order to converse effectively with their future candidates, the author notes.
Mobile devices
One of the biggest problems in this area is that companies’ technology platforms are not set up to cope with applications from mobile devices, increasingly the devices of choice for younger candidates.
The simple solution, the author helpfully informs us, is to use "Apply with LinkedIn" as well as linking to CVs stored in cloud storage sites such as Dropbox and Google Drive.
Another problem is that different department may use different social media platforms.
Marketing and sales, for example, may be embracing social media to help build and develop the brand and engage with various audiences. But HR may not be embracing social media in the same way, leading to frustration.
The benefits for recruiters who do leverage social media, however, are enormous. These platforms allow you to dramatically increase the pool of people from which to recruit.
Factor in clever searching technologies that can find all of the people linked to them, and companies now have access to millions of candidates from all around the world.
Embedded in the right way, social media won’t just help you find candidates; it can also assist in application, selecting, on-boarding, throughout the tenure of employment and even after through alumni communities.
Powerful even on their own, platforms can be even more effective when combined.
This is particularly relevant for cross-platform sharing and messaging, as each social network has a slightly different audience and therefore a different objective from a recruiting perspective.
The author runs a consultancy that helps companies understand and integrate social media into their recruitment strategies and presents lots of timely information and strategic advice, punctuated with a good spread of relevant case studies of good practice.
Targeted playlists
Some innovative recruiting approaches are highlighted.
The music streaming service Spotify, very much a product of the mobile and social media era, had an interesting approach to finding developers, designers and other tech specialists, in direct competition to other big name tech companies.
One of its recruiters came up with the idea of using its own product to reach out and engage with talent he had identified on social media sites.
He created special musical playlist for these target candidates and sent links to them. The tactic worked, with most candidates responding very well to the initial approach. Many hard-to-fill positions were filled this way.
Social Media Recruitment is written in an accessible style that makes few assumptions about readers' knowledge of social media without being patronising. The author takes a straightforward, practical approach to the question of how to integrate social media into day-to-day recruitment activity.
