Top talent is on social media – Are you?

The workforce is changing rapidly, and employers must change, too. Otherwise, you risk being left out of the competition for top talent altogether. According to a recent study by international accounting and research expert PricewaterhouseCoopers, millennials — individuals born between 1980 and 2000 — will make up 50 percent of the global workforce by the year 2020. Another study by international consulting firm Deloitte predicts that millennials will comprise 75 percent of the global workforce by 2025.

This dramatic shift in demographics brings new challenges for staffing professionals, who are tasked with locating and attracting high-quality candidates. Traditional recruiting methods are no longer effective, and forward-thinking recruiters are scrambling to bring outdated sourcing practices into the 21st century.

Why Social Media?

As a whole, the millennial generation is technologically savvy. Sometimes referred to as the digital generation, they are the first to grow up with easy access to computers, Internet and mobile devices. Generally speaking, millennials are highly active on social media, and many prefer social platforms for communication rather than face-to-face or telephone conversations.

This group has high expectations of their employers, and you can be sure that potential applicants are vetting your talent brand through a wide variety of online resources before they consider submitting their CV for consideration. If your social media presence is poor or non-existent, you can count on a struggle to attract highly qualified candidates.

Making Social Media Work for You

Fortunately, the trend towards blending professional and personal networking through social media can work in your favor. Through judicious use of popular platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, you can increase the number of qualified applicants for open positions — a critical need in high-turnover industries such as retail and hospitality.

The best staffing applications offer simple contact forms that can be pre-filled in minutes using existing personal information from social media accounts. These are time-savers for staffers and applicants alike, as they simultaneously permit candidates to self-select for the experience, education and technical knowledge required to be successful in the position. Millennials appreciate the ease of researching and applying to a position using their mobile devices, and recruiters can sort through to find the most qualified talent efficiently.

Maximising Your Talent Brand

A social media recruiting strategy is only effective when companies have a strong talent brand on the most popular platforms. Candidates expect to locate detailed information about company culture and employer commitment using their social media accounts, and they prefer immediate access to recruiting staff through social media chat tools.

Maintain complete profiles with frequent updates on all of the social media sites, making sure to include personal narratives that paint a picture of employee experience within your organisation. Emphasise your commitment to community partnership, your innovative talent development programmes and your strong employee engagement to ensure you attract the best and brightest candidates in the talent pool.

Restructuring your recruiting strategy to match social media trends might appear unnecessary at first glance. However, when you take the expectations and experiences of the millennial generation into consideration, it is clear that social media is a critical piece of the staffing puzzle. Companies that fail to adapt cannot compete in the global competition for workforce talent.

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