online recruitment

Online recruitment marches forward

 

Development of online recruitment

Online recruitment has advanced significantly on the recruitment practices of the pre digital era – think post, fax, paper etc. One of the misconceptions that many make is that online recruitment has or will replace traditional recruitment methods. This is fundamentally incorrect because recruitment remains a relationship and people interaction business. Technology cannot replace the fundamentals, rather it can enhance the speed and processes in which processes are conducted, and in some cases add new ways to enhance recruitment delivery.

Let me explain – at a recent seminar by world leading recruitment expert @Greg_Savage said that there is a dawning of a new era where recruitment is now more about marketing and less about sales. It is about being able to deliver what perhaps the client can’t do as well as specialist recruiters, and that is identify the best talent and bring it to the table. In order to do that we have to be expert social marketers in order to identify (source) and then attract (recruit) talent. Technology allows us to source, however it is people that will recruit.

Online recruitment sourcing areas can include Google, Boolean searches, Facebook, LinkedIn and numerous other social media portals. Sourcing methods are now even more sophisticated and below is a great example:

 Virtual Online Recruitment

online recruitment@Greg_Savage explained that rather than attend expensive conferences in all parts of the country and around the world, you can attend virtually. Each event organiser typically has an event identifier or “hashtag” (a Twitter identifier). A great way to identify key talent is to keep tabs on the event hashtag and see who is attending, who makes (digital) posts, and where they “hangout”. Often the people that you may see attending an event may not necessarily hangout on Twitter – they could hangout digitally on Facebook or LinkedIn or one or more of the many social media portals. The message here is that the fundamental concepts of recruiting haven’t changed, but the technology, processes and methodologies have.

Talent and online recruitment

@Greg_Savage also said “Talent is not an online commodity. Identifying candidates is not the same as recruiting them. It’s the ability to bring talent to the hiring table, and manage the process that clients will pay us for.”  Contrary to the sentiment that higher unemployment brings an abundance of candidates, that this is not necessarily true. If we drill down to the skills needed for particular sectors, the best people with the best skills are not in abundant supply, and they are becoming harder to find. More baby boomers are retiring than ever before and with fewer people working, talent in particular areas is and will be highly sought after and tightly held. We therefore need to be able to identify “passive” candidates ie those that don’t have their resumes on the job boards and who are not visible on LinkedIn and other social portals. In contrast, active candidates are easy to find, but in general the best candidates with the best skills are often “passive” candidates.

If you are a business owner, are you doing some or all of these things? How are you identifying talent? How are you attracting talent? What does your brand say about your business? Do you have digital footprint? If not, that is ok as long as you are connected to those recruiters with expertise, and who can source and recruit talent for your business. This is where online recruitment is a lot more than it appears and more involved than what it sounds.

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