Recruiting through social media: pros and cons

Nick Taylor

“Ignore social media at your peril.” We have all heard that message, but how can recruiters really understand the best and worst of social networking? Nick Taylor explains

Checking someone’s Facebook profile might be a useful way to see if ‘I’m creative and enjoy illustration’ translates to ‘I spend Saturday nights as a graffiti artist, damaging historic monuments’, but what are the pros and cons of recruiting through social media?

Pros: It’s modern

Younger jobseekers are actively looking for creative recruitment techniques. Traditional benefits, like a company car, won’t sell your job any more. Now, more than ever before, people are interested in the type of company that they’ll be working for. An online presence on a social network is an easy way to show that you’re keeping up with technology and that you’re willing to try new things. Linking your job advertisement through to your company’s Facebook page is one of the quickest and easiest ways to give a potential applicant a sense of what your company is really like.

It’s targeted

The people most likely to see you advertising a job on Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn are the people that follow your company. They’re already interested in what you do, and they’re more likely to have a basic understanding that makes it easier for you to bring them up to speed.

It’s affordable

You can advertise a job on a social network without spending a thing, or use a social network’s marketing tools to reach your target audience. Whether you’re a modern marketing recruitment agency or the manager of a more traditional business, it doesn’t cost a penny to tweet a link to a job vacancy or to share the details on Facebook.

Cons: It could encourage discrimination

People used to pin photographs to their CVs. As jobseekers become more and more aware of the potential for discrimination, they remove an increasing number of personal details from their job applications. If you’re reviewing a candidate using their Facebook profile, then you’ll potentially have access to all sort of details including the way they look, their sexuality, their age and whether or not they have children. Even if you don’t use these facts to make your decision, you’re opening yourself up to discrimination claims.

You need a defensive strategy

Always be prepared for disgruntled ex-employees, or unhappy customers, to make themselves known. If you post to advertise a job vacancy, writing positive things about your company, then there’s every chance that someone else can respond with a negative comment. You need to have a plan in place to turn any negatives into positives. If your defensive strategy is to delete any negative comments, then you should assume that they’ll return almost as quickly as you’ve removed them.

It’s time consuming

Reviewing CVs and job applications has always been a time-consuming process. When you use social networks, it can take even longer. You need to gather the applications, evaluate them, check up on the applicants and respond. It’s a full-time job in itself

Have you used social media for recruitment? Was it a positive or negative experience? Do you have any pros and cons to add? Comment below, and let us know.

Nick Taylor is in the PR team at Forward Role Recruitment