How Is Social Networking Effective For Recruiters?
Do you think that the organizations have to wait for sometime before judging the real worth of social media? Social networking is helping recruiters to find the best people from the market. So do you suggest on replacing social networking to other recruitment tools which are been used in the industry?
The recruiters of today find social networking very attractive and the best way to source and hire people for the organization. But we still need to find out the true potential which lies in using social media for recruitment.
Many recruiters have benefited a lot by using social media and networking to hire people for an organization. However, will it be successful for everyone, needs to be debated and discussed. Organizations still wants to gain confidence before moving from old conventional tools to consider social media approach as one of the best available remedies in the market today.
On the social circuit people work or interact with different mindsets. Let us see how these affects the social networking arena.
Mind set of the hiring consultant
The hiring consultant is confident that as soon as he joins any social media site he is definitely going to get an access to an immense pool of talented professionals. On the various communities or specific networking groups he is confident to find people related to his industry or market. To check whether this statement is true we have to analyze what people want or think when they interact with one another on the social arena.
Why do people want to get involved in talking to others via social media?
The whole sole purpose of people making online connections is to interact and socialize with friends with whom they rarely meet offline. They also look towards sharing and building their knowledge pool by involving in discussions and talks with others who have similar interests. However, there are only very few individuals who would choose social media to build or discuss great career prospects for future. I am keeping the professional networking sites like Linkedin etc out of these discussions as they are pure sites dedicated to working professionals. What we can conclude from here is that people take advantage of social networking to discuss their life events rather than building a strong professional network.
The conclusion which can be deduced from this is:
The size of an individual’s network is very small if we compare it to the total connections strength.
Men responses are less if we compare it to any women. Six or more will be an average number of people with whom a female will be interacting while a man would manage to handle four at any point in time. The mixing of people with common background or profession is seen less as major talk revolves around sharing personal details and achievements. You are also not able to judge where that individual is working or what are his qualifications as people tend to avoid mentioning such details on their social networking profile. You are also not sure whether he has been successful in his profession or what his current employment status is till date.
The study above influences our decision and challenges us to revisit and analyze whether it is beneficial to judge people on the various so called social networking sites. Much deeper study is required before declaring this tool to be complete in all aspects.
Aspects of Social Medium which needs to be disclosed:
Hardly have we come across people chatting on how they will like their career to be or what competencies they need to build upon for future growth. Location details can be found but beyond this you really have to work hard to take out information. The only way left is to scrutinize and shortlist people on the basis of the information which is available. The consultant at times rejects people as they are not smart or are more fun lovers as perceived from their personal photographs attached to their profiles. This may lead to rejecting worthy guys and which is not appropriately justified.
How Do You Verify Online Details Of Candidates?
Assuming that a recruiter has finally short listed few candidates based on his assumptions and information provided on a networking site. The challenge lies here is on the verification of information collected to assess an individual’s background. There are very few resources like LinkedIn to rely upon to confirm the details shared by an individual in his profile. It is advisable to be more cautious on relying on social media at this point.
Efforts and work needs to be done at both ends in order to take decisions on the social media information. Whether this would be the next generation recruitment tool, I am doubtful.
Want to find out more about social networking for recruiters, then visit Amit Bhagria’s site on how to choose the best social networking tools for all your hiring needs.
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