Candidates shun social media for job applications

Jo Faragher

UK workers are turning away from social media when applying for jobs because they do not think their profile will be taken seriously, a survey by recruitment outsourcing company hyphen has found.

The poll of 1,000 workers shows that the number of professionals that use social media to apply for a new role has halved since last year – with a mere 1 in 20 (4.4%) making regular applications for jobs through digital channels in 2013, compared to 1 in 10 (9.1%) last year.

At the same time, nearly a quarter (23.9%) of professionals say that even if they did apply for a new role through social media, they believe that their application would not be taken seriously. Last year, nearly half that amount (13.9%) expressed this view. 

The poll revealed, however, that graduates are now more likely to apply for jobs using social media than last year, with almost 8% regularly making applications for jobs through digital channels – compared to just 3.1% last year.

Earlier this year, a survey by HR intelligence provider XpertHR found that fewer than half of organisations use social media for recruitment purposes. Of 138 employers that took part in the survey, only 46% said they used social media to recruit. This was compared with 89% that use their corporate websites and 82% that use job boards to attract and recruit candidates.

Zain Wadee, hyphen’s managing director, believes investment in social media alone may not be enough to encourage candidates to use these channels exclusively.

He said: “Many companies have invested significantly in social media as a recruitment channel. However, it seems that many candidates are still using more traditional channels such as job boards and careers websites when it comes to making direct job applications.”

“With fewer professionals using social media to apply for jobs purely because they do not think their approach will be taken seriously, or because it could be deemed unprofessional, firms that wish to engage with talent on social channels need to find ways of overhauling their employer brand or methods of engagement to get up to speed with new methods of communication.”