Build A Better Career

How much social media or networking helping organizations to hire talented people? We find many recruiters nowadays effectively using social networking for hiring the best people for an organization. Now the question which needs to be answered is on whether this social networking can replace other recruiting tools.

Social networking these days is considered to be one of the most sought out solution for sourcing and recruiting employees in an organization by recruiters. However, the potential that lies in social networking still needs to be tapped to a greater extent.

Social networking have been successful to a handful of recruiters but that doesn’t mean it would be beneficial to all. Organizations need to figure out the answer to whether is it the right time to diverge from conventional tools to social networking approach as more and more recruiters preach and confirm social networking to be the best solution in the market these days.

There are various thoughts and feelings which sets the mood and platform for people to interact online. Let us see how does it affects the online networking circuit.

What does the recruiter or hiring person thinks:

The hiring consultant is confident that as soon as he joins any social media site he is definitely going to get an access to an immense pool of talented professionals. On the various communities or specific networking groups he is confident to find people related to his industry or market. To check whether this statement is true we have to analyze what people want or think when they interact with one another on the social arena.

Why do people want to get involved in talking to others via social media?

People look forward to stay in touch and connect with their friends. Most of the people interact through various social mediums to build strong and long term connections with their offline friends. They also look forward in gaining value by sharing information and their networks with others. Most of the individuals talk about their personal lives and very few indulge in career related activities or sharing their future aspirations with others. There are various dedicated sites on developing great career prospects however for our current discussion, I would like to keep them out of it.

The conclusion which can be deduced from this is:

The connection strength is quite huge in comparison to an individual’s network.

Women are more receptive to any post in comparison to men. A man will hardly talk to 4 people at a time while women might be hovering above 6. It would be alarming to see that individuals are apprehensive in talking to people sharing same profession or interests. The information which is exchanged online is more related to people’s own lives rather than any other fruitful knowledge. Individuals restrain from sharing information regarding their job or work online which does not help in analyzing their correct professional details. Further no comments can be made on a person’s performance or skill sets.

The observation above forces us to rethink on the benefits of social networking in the professional arena. However what can be concluded from here is that we are going to face lot of challenges in using it as a complete recruiting tool.

How much successful is Social Media?

Discussions around career development or honing one’s skills are seldom found in the various chatrooms or scraps. As a recruiter one would be able to extract very limited information on an individual’s candidature which most of the times leads to incorrect decision making. The profile of many individuals seems to hide the useful information and often carries plane garbage. This leads to a lot of confusions and many times resulting in delays and unjustifiable decisions.

What are the steps to search for right information about the candidates?

Are you confident that the information sorted out via social media for any candidate will be 100% true. No obviously as there are no supporting documents or proofs attached. In this kind of a scenario my advice will be not to heavily rely on social media tool for your hiring needs.

Recruiters need to really work hard on totally relying on social media to be the best solution for sourcing and recruitment for organizations. There has to be a certain change in the information shared at these sites which can be utilized by potential organizations or recruters for their benefit.

Want to find out more about social networking for recruiters, then visit Amit Bhagria’s site on how to choose the best social networking tools for all your hiring needs.