HR and Social Media – The Basics
We spend a lot of time helping our clients build their HR practice by reviewing processes and, of course, setting up great case management capabilities. Often, though, we start talking about social media and how it can be leveraged to improve their performance. With that in mind, I though it worth sharing a few simple approaches to using the Social Media toolbox in HR.
It’s the “professional” networking site. It’s a great tool for recruiters, to be sure, but also a great way for your organization to establish themselves online. Having your teams on LinkedIn with consistent branding shows a unity of purpose and direction. Help your team build their profiles and connect to those who are in the same space. You’ll build a reputation as being open and willing to share what you know. Won’t hurt your SEO rankings, either.
There are some who avoid LinkedIn because they fear recruiters will swoop in and take their talent. The truth is a good recruiter will find them anyway. Be proactive and build the right kind of environment, and your top talent will stay because they want to, not because they don’t have options.
Research the best ways to build LinkedIn profiles and share the knowledge with others. Your employees will quickly become your best recruiting assets.
I guess this is the “unprofessional” network. OK, the “personal” network. It’s also where a lot of people spend their time. And your clients and candidates are a lot of people. So go to where they are.
Create a company page. It’s free to start, though you can certainly hire someone to help. Share the page with everyone you know. Post your open jobs, of course. (You may want a FB page just for jobs, if you post enough.) Talk about how much people like working there. Get your employees to post about how much they like working there. Interact with your fans. Get your message out there. At the very least, it can help build pride in your company, which is a great thing for your employees. It doesn’t hurt that you can humanize your HR team and make them easy to reach.
I know, you probably hate Twitter. Stop it. Lots of people love it. And your candidates are lots of people. Get an account for your company, and try to work in the company name and “jobs” into the title. Make sure the description includes “jobs” and/or “job openings.” People search for that, so it matters. Post your jobs there in 140 characters. Actually, try for 100, and include the link to the online application. Follow other people in bunches. Often they will follow you back, building your network. Search for other job accounts and follow them. (It doesn’t hurt to follow the jobs accounts of your competitors, if they have one. Wouldn’t you like to know what they are looking for? Wouldn’t you like to know if they are competing for the same talent or, worse, coming after yours? Thoughts so.)
A great way to share video with your whle company. There are things that happen every day in your office that are worth sharing. From a recruiting standpoint, it’s great to share what the work environment is really like. From an opertional standpoint, you can push out messages to the whole company in a way email never could. Show your personality and your message in a more engaging way than a memo.
And don’t neglect your leaders. Recruiting a lot of freshly graduated engineers? Have your engineering leaders talk about what they need in their department and how to best prepare for the job. Get information to your candidates to help them understand how to be successful, and how to contact you to share their details. You want them to win, and you want them to win on your terms. So tell them. It’s as close to unlimited interviews as you can get from the selling side.
(Once you get comfortable with YouTube, come back and we’ll talk about Skype and online interviews.)
What else is there?
Well, there’s that pesky “real life” thing. The best thing you can do is to get out from behind your desk and spend time getting to know the people you support. Meet them for coffee. Or breakfast. Or lunch. Or whatever excuse you can come up with. Your job is to know people. So get to know them.
In a lot of ways, it’s the best job you can have. Assuming you like people. And I’m assuming you do.
