Member Article

HR managers relying on social media to recruit

The competitive recruitment landscape and increasing popularity of social media are fundamentally changing the way UK companies attract staff, according to research* released today. HR managers are engaging in the fight for top talent through recruitment marketing, with two thirds creating and distributing recruitment content via social media. A further 44% are using social channels to communicate directly with candidates, with the majority saying these methods deliver results.

The findings are part of Recruitment Marketing Insights 2016, a report launched today by creative content agency Southerly and HR transformation consultancy Veran Performance. The research forms the most comprehensive overview of recruitment marketing in the UK to date and aims to help HR professionals gain the traction they need in today’s challenging market conditions.

The report shows that UK businesses are producing a variety of targeted content to attract and inform potential candidates, ranging from career sites and ‘join us’ pages to job profiles, Q&As, career blogs, employer brand videos, podcasts and Slide-shares. Of these, career sites and job profiles are proving particularly effective in helping companies recruit the best talent.

When it comes to getting this content in front of candidates, 67% of HR managers are turning to social media, with almost three quarters (73%) using Facebook, 67% using LinkedIn and 50% using Twitter. It’s not just the major social channels proving useful, with almost a fifth (18%) of HR managers distributing recruitment-focused content on Instagram and 5% using Snapchat.

Overall, HR managers report that recruitment marketing is helping them increase the number of applications per vacancy, increase the quality and diversity of applications, reduce cost per hire and time to fill positions. It also improves brand recognition and staff retention.

Explaining the motivation behind the report Shelley Hoppe, CEO of Southerly, said: “As the economy has picked up, candidates have become more discerning. HR managers simply can’t afford to stick the old ‘one size fits all’ approach to finding talent. Content and social media are hot topics in marketing and these techniques can be applied to great effect in the world of recruitment.

“Forward thinking HR managers are making the most of the various media, tools and channels available to engage with candidates in a fresh and informative way, and are seeing positive results across a variety of strategic metrics. While this is a global trend, this is the first report to shed light on how UK companies in particular are responding to the challenge,” added Hoppe.

Tom Holmes, founding director at Veran Performance, comments: “We’ve seen increasing interest in recruitment marketing from our members. The HR function is in flux at the moment and this is an area that HR absolutely must own, rather than hand off to marketing or brand teams. There’s a real opportunity for HR managers to embrace new, dynamic techniques that will help them attract high quality candidates who reflect the organisation’s values, which in turn will impact positively on recruitment and retention costs.”

The Recruitment Marketing Insights 2016 report is available to download here.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Southerly .