Article: Written by Sean Rego: The Controversy of Using Social Media in Recruitment

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This a first article in a series regarding social recruiting.

Social Recruiting:

The Controversy of Using Social Media

In Recruitment

By: Sean A. Rego

There seems to be a lot of controversy regarding the use of “social media” in the recruitment process. First let’s define “social media”. Social Media as defined by Merriam Webster: forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and micro-blogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).

Wikipedia defines Social media as “media for social interaction, using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue.” The bottom line is that there are many definitions of what “social media” is and the definition continues to evolve as the mediums of communication change.

Recently, I had an experience where someone that I knew was extremely opposed to using social media to source candidates for a job search. The reason for this persons concern was lack of control of the information and the “liability” of distributing information to a large group of people. In addition, this person was concerned with what some individuals may do with the information once the information was posted. The fear of the internet and the use of social media as a tool for some is terrifying. Not being able to control who distributes the information is a concern for many; but, does anyone ever have total control of any information that is distributed regarding a search? In my article, I am going to contrast several “traditional” sourcing techniques with newer “social recruiting” practices.

Back in the mid to late 90’s the methods of sourcing candidates varied from hard bound directories, compact disc directories, the use of researchers and our own CRM among others. These resources allowed us to identify people from competitors that were working in the desired field of our search. Many of us sourced our current network to identify someone that fit the specifications for our open requisition. We would contact our potential candidates using a variety of methods to include “dialing and smiling” or email. Once we were able to connect to these potential candidates we began the “sale” of the opportunity to the prospective candidate, screen the candidate for the requirements of the job and often sent the individual a job description or other collateral provided by our employer or client. Sometimes the search would be confidential, however, most of the time the companies name and the location were allowed to be distributed through our network and to the candidates directly. Once this information was given to the candidate, whether it was verbal or email, the control of this information was out of our hands. We could ask the candidate or network not to distribute the information we had given, however, many times it was distributed or discussed outside of our request, if we were networking, and the information was distributed to others, because we asked our contacts to share with their network.

Today, “social media” has allowed us to expand our network beyond our direct contacts and to our “second” and “third” level contacts and even deeper (as linkedin.com allows) quickly and easily. In addition, there are job posting systems that we may use with little or no cost that will cross post our open requisition to a variety of high profile job boards. These tools allow us to continue to “work” while we are doing other activities. In addition, many of us have created our own online content to engage the job community. These communities discuss best practices, seek input from other professionals and of course allow us to post our open requisitions. These tools allow us to connect with a larger group of individuals and allow our “network” to work with and for us to assist in our search. I will acknowledge, that these tools are reaching a larger number of people and when reaching a larger number of people, the opportunity for potential challenges increases; this is an example of “law of averages”, however, many in my profession would argue that these tools reach both active and passive candidates that we may not have been able to reach. These tools allows us to do more with less effort and these tools allow us to close open searches with the best candidates in a shorter amount of time.

There are some important things to consider when you are using blog sites or social sites such as facebook, twitter or others. First, I recommend that have your “settings” set so that only you or someone that is on your team can approve content to be shown or distributed. Second, I recommend that you keep your job postings confidential. By keeping your posting confidential you reduce the amount of information shared to the general public and can reduce the risk of negative impact to your employer or your client. Finally, I believe that it is critical that the recruiter provide timely feedback to any and all candidates that have applied to the posted position.

In today’s world of blog sites and places anyone can post anything about anyone. The challenge with this type of content is that there is very little you can do to stop someone from posting content about your employer or even you. This is coming from someone that has firsthand experience with individuals posting content about my employer or client. The web is full of blog sites that claim that many employers are terrible employers or that organizations are engaging in practices that are questionable. I worked for an employer at one time that was recognized as one of the “Top 100 Companies to Work For” by Fortune Magazine and at the same time there was a blog created by some past and current employees that had posted negative content about that employer.

In closing, it is very difficult, if not impossible to control all of the content about you or your organization that is on the internet today, however, you can control all of “your” content that you post and what others may attempt to post on your social sites. The more positive content that you post on the internet reduces the location and visibility of the negative content on the internet. As one colleague of mine said so succinctly, “You are either a part of social media or a victim of it”.

In short, there are many advantages and challenges that need to be addressed when using social media to recruit. Only you can decide what is best for you and your organization.

The above article is a commentary provided by the author and is not to be considered as specific advice to the recipients or readers. 

Sean Rego is a 17 year veteran of recruitment.  He has held a variety of positions as an internal staffing leader for both public and private companies and organizations, as well as multiple years working in retained executive search.