Using Social Media in HR

The human resources department has many responsibilities within an organization, not the least of which is to hire new employees. This is a very important task because hiring the wrong employees could lead to high staff turnover and other issues, which is financially costly for a company. Social media has changed the way human resources managers operate, making the recruitment aspect of their job faster and easier.

When social media first became a big deal, companies generally used it to reach out to consumers. Human resources might get involved only minimally, such as to announce the hiring of a person for a high-profile position. They might also use a social media page to communicate with employees, but not consumers. Twitter or Facebook were very popular with the marketing and advertising departments, but human resources barely touched them. Times have definitely changed, and now social media is being used as an effective recruitment tool that can sometimes streamline the recruitment and hiring process.

In the past, if you needed to fill a position in your company, you would pay for a job posting in a newspaper or on a website, and then wait for prospective employees to answer the advertisement. Finding the right person could be problematic, since you would largely have to wait for the job seekers to come to you. Now, with social media recruiting, you can have a real-time conversation with recruits to gauge their interest, rather than spending time recruiting a candidate who might not be ready to join your company. You can even seek candidates out using their social media profiles much like a headhunter would do, instead of having to wait for the candidate to come to you. Vacant positions may now take just days instead of weeks to fill, ensuring that your company's workflow continues unimpeded.

Another use for social media by human resources departments is to verify application information. For example, if one of your stated criteria for hiring a candidate is that they are familiar with social media, you can use their profiles to determine if they do indeed have the requisite experience. You can also see how engaged they are with their friends or followers to determine if they have the right skills necessary to take on a job with this kind of criteria. In an age where use of social media is becoming a prerequisite for an increasing number of jobs, this information could be invaluable.

Social media recruiting is still a relatively new practice, so your human resources department might still be establishing best practices. It's important to follow these best practices, but to also be on the lookout for any other advantages that social media can give your human resources department. Recruiting might just be the tip of the iceberg as social media continues to grow in importance.

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