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As the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) indicated in one released survey that more than 68% of the organizations are using social media tools for external communications and for marketing and recruiting purpose, more and more employers are aware of the tremendous benefits which social networks can bring to the companies. For HR department, the engagement of social networks can not only improve work efficiency and collaboration, but also introduce the advantages such as:
- Building up reputation of the company
- Recruiting talented candidates
- Effectively training employees
- Improving knowledge and information sharing
- Connecting employees and customers
It is easy to relate the responsibility of social presence with the marketing or public relation departments; however, while HR is in charge of distributing available job vacancies and details, the engagement of social networks can enormously facilitate the process of recruitment and effectively deliver organization’s culture to attract talented applicants. This article aims to provide feasible strategies about how HR can participate and contribute to building up company’s reputation, in order to make the company known by all the worldwide target candidates, and further encourage them to apply for a position.
Google has been successfully showcased its culture and core values to the worldwide skilled candidates and scored the top place of dream organization to work with among most graduates.
It is all about marketing, even for the job recruiting page.
So how HR department can help?
The key is to effectively present the organization’s culture and value, and make them so attractive to target candidates. But how HR can make company’s social presence distinctive from other competitors and acquire applicant’s attention?
Content determines everything.
Only quality contents will turn visitors into readers and loyal followers. Only good contents will attract user to share, and cause viral distributions.
A post without comments, likes and shares is dead. It is only one way communication, no exact interaction between publisher and audience.
Let’s take a look at Suncorp and its social presence which HR can take part in.
Strategies for HR to build up company’s reputation:
1. Make social presence attractive to target candidates
2. Make viral distribution happened
3. Build up and maintain the relationship with online connectors, mavens and salesmen
Facebook Page: Suncorp Group Careers
The page only got 534 likes and 6 users actively talking about it. Let’s take look at one of its post:
Suggestions: Strategy 1.
Make social presence attractive to target candidates
Since Facebook has reached 1 billion active users, it is no doubt the best platform to not only market your company but also differentiate your company from competing for recruiting competitive talents. In order to capture young, tech-savvy graduates’ attention, try to vividly showcase your culture, work, and company, illustrate how the life and atmosphere working in your organization will be, the relationship between employees and business partners, make the campaigns and culture appealing and encourage audience to like and share it- Strategy 2. Make viral distribution happened.
Effectively activate and reward the roles of connectors, mavens and salesmen in your social networks since they are the key elements to make viral distribution of your products happened. Connectors help us to link with our social circles while mavens are willing to distribute all great deals and quality contents for you, and salesmen will encourage target customers to take actions. A reward system is required and can boost further loyalty and engagement.
As more and more employers turn to LinkedIn for recruitment, Suncorp may need to consider about taking part in vying talented applicants’ attention since LinkedIn is the largest online database of industry professionals, experts and even rare talents. A well-maintained and regularly updated online identity will help to build up the potential talented candidate pipeline for effective and efficient recruitment.
Even with only 269 followers, a compelling job vacancy post can still attract abundant attention and retweets. It’s all about how the company promote its culture and working environment, to make it a dream place for target candidates to work.
For effectively and precisely measure the ROI of each post, Webtrends can help to track specific contents which trigger users to perform following actions such as purchasing and enquiring.
“What Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin all do is that they scrub the source, so you know that it came from Twitter but you don’t know what content it came from,” Gunn said. “Now you can attribute it to the post or tweet that is driving the highest traffic.”
Related posts:
Social networks for HR recruitment by Amanda
How social media fits in the enterprise by Charleston
Social Networking Strategies for Recruitment by Karen
References:
1. SHRM Survey Shows HR Has Active Role in Social Media Policies
2. SHRM Survey: HR Has Key Role in Corporate Social Media Efforts
3. Social Media Stetegy for human Resource
4. HR Role in Social Media Strategy
5. HR and Social Media
6. LinkedIn and Recruitment2.Lima,Peru 13Sept2012
edie cheng 
