Get with the Programme And Start Getting Social

Tuesday, 10 July 2018

Leading recruitment agency says employers are falling behind

in utilising social media for attracting talent

New Zealand is lagging the rest of the world by not harnessing social media for employment recruitment, says Frog Recruitment’s Jane Kennelly.

Frog analysed the use of social channels by more than 50 New Zealand organisations for six months in 2018, revealing most are missing opportunities to reach more candidates.

Ninety two percent of organisations came up short in making the most of social recruitment. Only 29 percent use YouTube for posting video content and fewer than 10 percent use Instagram, in the belief that it is not relevant to them. A whopping 92 percent are missing the leverage power of LinkedIn.

“The figures are concerning, particularly as LinkedIn is viewed as a ‘go-to’ research platform by career seekers who want to see what an organisation and its people are like.

“Instagram is also a largely untapped channel. The power was clear when we ran an Instagram driven social campaign that netted more than 37,000 people visiting our company website looking for career opportunities throughout the short campaign. In the last year we have seen a 38 percent increase in followers who like and tag jobs. These numbers defy the ho-hum attitude to this channel,” says Kennelly.

If the prediction that by 2020, 50 percent of the global working population will be millennials - the generation that has embraced social media as their preferred communication channel - then it is now an urgent training issue for human resources teams or hiring managers to be up to speed with understanding how to use diverse talent attraction methods to stand out and be seen.

“For businesses looking to recruit in this challenging market, using a mix of social media channels is a highly accurate way to select an audience, rather than through traditional media channels which are often unmeasurable, expensive, less specific and talk to wasted eye-balls. By adopting multi-social media options, companies can target specific audiences based on age group, social preferences and geographic locations,” adds Kennelly.

Acknowledging the growing impact of social media as a way of managing communications, developing communities, targeting specific groups, creating thought leadership forums, playing to people’s curiosity and interacting in a talent tight market, late last year Frog created a new role within the organisation – a Social Recruitment Manager who works specifically on employer social media channels.

“Our manager harnesses social channels in all forms of customer engagement and client management. Given we all use social media every day, we’re connecting with people on their preferred platforms, in a way they want us to connect with them.”

Not only is recruiting potential candidates for roles important, so too is the activity of businesses communicating the company’s culture, people and philosophy.

“You Tube, SnapChat, Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook are brilliant for companies to share their company values and culture with a huge number of people. It creates a place where the company can promote their ethos, philosophy, community projects and their team, making themselves more authentic and attractive to potential employees and in turn, those potential employees can see if the company is the right fit for them.”

Kennelly says the good news is that many New Zealand companies already have well-constructed social media footprints to build on.

“Recruiting has evolved well past just posting job ads and morphed into working with companies to utilise their existing social media channels more effectively to attract the right talent through the door. And in a time when New Zealand is facing its lowest unemployment rate in ten years, extending the use of your social media is not to be scoffed at.”

Recently Frog helped a large national construction company who had been looking for a high-level management position since September 2017. With no success recruiting in New Zealand, they looked to find talent internationally.

“We increased social media channels to target more people about the role and at the same time giving them a flavour of the company. They had to promote themselves to a global audience who are unlikely to have recognised the company’s name as we do in New Zealand, and to highlight the benefits of working in a new country. It was a clever way for them to recruit and they did it very successfully,” says Kennelly.

“Social media is a powerful global tool and it’s never been cheaper, easier or more effective for New Zealand companies to start tapping into its potential.”

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