The whole social media thing as a recruiting tool is just so random. It’s like taking a basket of bread and a baseball bat out to a lake. You’re bound to get something eventually, but which part of the lake to look in first? Yes people can search using key words on Twitter and the like, but you kn ow what? they’ve been able to do that for years on job boards or even just via Google.

Also love the bit about Gen Y. Nothing makes me angrier than some upstart thinking the world owes them a living just because they are more proficient at using an ipod or switching on a PC. It;s the old-fashioned people skills that will survive long after the ‘next best technology since the bread slicer came long’ has gone. And if I see many more whales being towed along by birds due to ‘over capacity’ I will scream.

The real power of social media is its ability to spread a message fast so best to look to see where in your industry a fast and open response adds value, and that’s where you should try first.

1) People are spending more time on the social web, so jobseekers will spend more time on the social web too. So it will stupid to ignore the social web.

2) Lots of agencies and employers aren’t using the social web well or to its full potential. Just because a company participates doesn’t necessarily mean they are doing all they can do. From my observations, I feel Aquent for example could leverage the social web better (eg “own” / brand niche talent communities in your areas of Marketing and Design specialisations). I see lots of opportunities and potential missed opportunities across the recruitment industry IMAO.

3) Any company or individual who is world famous only on twitter doesn’t make them a “social media expert”.

4) I’m doing stuff on Facebook, Twitter etc with clients experimenting with ways to better engage with jobseekers. I believe we are having success in achieving a better informed candidate base who are becoming “fans” of my clients.

5) Agree 100% with Gareth. I worked on a big project last year looking at the ROI of recruitment advertising methods across about 60 employers – only 1 employer properly measured the ROI and a few said they did NOT ever intend to measure their ROI. Many recruiters I know push the newspaper, only as a way to self-brand, even though they know it’s not always an effective or cost-effective option for the client. I always find it rich when the same people bang on about ROI of social recruiting.

6) Employers will start using social media within their own organisations to communicate and collaborate, without even knowing they’re social networking. Will third party recruiters be as social media savvy?

Im not saying that we should not be concerned with the ROI of social media, of course we should. But its a bit rich for everyone to be banging on about it when they dont even measure existing channels beyond pure applicant numbers.

Ill go now

Firstly, whilst it is true that in the 5 years up to 2008 our services were used more than ever, it is also important to remember that they were used proportionally less. Our efforts have continually been marginalised, over the last 10 years, by RPO’s, clients own efforts and, as you have pointed out in previous posts, by the spreading of job orders across a larger and larger pool of recruiters on a competitive basis. This trend was largely ignored, particularly by the larger recruiters and you only have to look at their comments as the recession began to see proof of their spectacular ignorance. Many of these companies are publicly listed, with responsibilities to shareholders and really should have known better.

Secondly, social media is more than just a channel. Sure, its no panacea and its so new, particularly in recruitment terms, that to make any claims about its impact at the moment are pure speculation. Also, if you cant hold a conversation or build a relationship over the phone or face to face currently, you stand no chance over social media. In fact, its more likely to do you more damage. However what social media does do is create a sense of connectedness that that nothing else has done before it and its not appropriate to compare it to the impact of job boards.

Our industry is in desperate need of innovation – a conversation with any client will tell you that. Unfortunately, innovation requires disciplined, objective and realistic thought which is sadly lacking in our industry. Most people in it are polarised in attitude, either in the camp that is announcing the immanent death of the recruitment industry or at the opposite end of the spectrum saying its going to return to the good old days inside 6 months. Neither are right and we need more recruitment leaders in the middle of the spectrum to make any headway in responding to the challenges facing the industry.

10 years ago many people, including recruiters said that IT people were the only people who would ever use the internet to find a job!

Great post Greg, look forward to more debate!

Greg one of the most well structured posts on the subject to date. All this social networking will only survive if we can demonstrate a true ROI from the tools. This was evident at the recent Social Recruiting Summit in San Francisco where very very few people could demonstrate a clear ROI. Managers, CEO and CFO require a return on all investments and until Social Recruiting can deliver we will go from this hype stage into a phase of disillusionment.

Having said that these tools used as part of an overall strategy can delivery business value. Again at the Social Recruiting Summit we saw a case study from Best Buy (online store in the US) as they were entering a new market actually having people create a Facebook group called along the lines of “Best Buy Hire Me”, 2,000 people joined the group before Best Buy arrived. In Australia we have seen organisations such as Deloitte, St George and many smaller organisations delivering value from using the tools as part of an overall strategy.

I think that finally my staff are starting to actually get it and I have attributed this to the following….. Along with Business Development, I have set a goal to speak to 10 candidates a day, candidates that have been lost in the system, candidates that have not been spoken to for a long time. I am spending quality time on the phone with these candidates; probing, consulting, asking for updates on where they are up to with their job search, finding out if they attended interviews, have they been spoken to about other roles , asking for updated CV’s to be sent to me(all lead generation) and guess what… it is working. Sure there are some calls that are a complete waste of time, but from these CONVERSATIONS there have been visits secured, we have upgraded some candidates from “B” grade to “B1” and even “A” grade, we have got jobs on and Consultants have filled or are in the process of filling them. We have made money. Would I have generated the same amount of leads via email or social networking sites – probably not?

I think that whilst what you are saying in your article is the absolute truth – it’s preaching old news, most people have heard all this before. I believe that most Managers who read this will go out and preach your message once AGAIN, they will forward the article to their staff and they may even host a training session on this topic. But, will they lead by example? Will they really dig deep to find the answer to “How can I get this message through to my staff? How can I get my Consultants to talk more and type less?” Get the Shepherd moving in the right direction and the flock will follow.

An article on Managers leading the way would be beneficial. There are a still a lot of Managers out there that practice the “do as I say, not as I do” mentality. That is, they do not lead the way by example. They tell their staff what to do, but do not show it. In such harsh economic climates the best thing that any Manager (across all levels) can do for a Consultant is generate activity and jobs to show their staff the way, to inspire their staff to follow in their footpaths and do the same.

The only hurdle is that a lot of Team Leaders and even some Managers are Gen Y and don’t truly believe what you are saying. They may agree with it but they have grown up in an age of modern technology and an old Geezer (no offence) like you is unfortunately not going to completely persuade them. A lot still honestly believe that emails, anti social networking sites are the ONLY way.

We need to change Managers Behaviour first. I believe that if we can get Managers on the phone more, leading the way then the results will be enormous.

I particularly enjoyed “The departing employee who made that remark was going to a new staffing world of in-house café lattes, flexible work hours, torn-jeans dress code — and a talent management strategy based entirely on scanning Facebook all day.”

For a year now I have been working on our start-up http://www.greenbizcheck.com which helps businesses to benefit from going green . My experiences with social networking have been similar. I am frustrated that I now spend 70% of my day online which seriously cuts into the time taken to build relationships face to face. Although our company is at the top with all sorts of search engine optimisation, in the top fifty of Twitter in Australia (I still don’t understand the point of knowing who is stepping out for a coffee or how they slept the night before) publishes three blogs, is prominent on LinkedIn, FaceBook and many others – 99% best success has come from meeting people in person. The adage that people buy from people they like and trust is even more important in a tough market. This is not easy (nearly impossible) to achieve on-line unless you are on a dating site and not too fussy who you might end up with.

I firmly agree that recruitment is about people meeting and working with people – in person, not online. Technology is a great enabler and platform for the recruitment process but will only produce a transactional, short term result if your old fashioned relationship building skills are not maximised. Just take a look at the industry’s top performers and ask them how much time they spend on Facebook versus meeting and talking with people in person.

PS just sent an old fashioned letter (on recycled paper of course) and was invited to meet with the CEO of a global listed company. He doesn’t have a Facebook page for some reason.

James Eliott (Recruitment Director at Deloitte Australia) said at the Australian Talent Conference 2009, that finding candidate names has never been easier (Deloitte employs a full time computer programmer within the recruitment team to assist in doing this), the tough part of the recruitment process remains;

1) engaging in a conversation
2) building a realtionship over time
3) impressing

Deloitte utilise social media in their recruitment process in a way that would be 99.9% more effective than other Australian employers, yet they fully understand that social media is only a tool, nothing more.