Six Figures Blog

The Fast Company article ‘How Social Media is Upending the Enterprise’ was sent to me this week by a colleague and I could have easily not read it given we are being saturated by this topic. However, this article so clearly highlights the challenge for recruiters and brings home the reality of the changing relationships that organizations have with their customers and prospective job seekers. Still so many choose to continue to try to dictate to the customer and job seeker, which is just not working. As the article so rightly states, the long-held notion that companies control the conversation is being challenged by social media:

“In a world where any customer can, in seconds, tweet or post to Facebook a pithy product review or share an experience they had with a brand, companies are forced to entirely rethink how they interact with their customers. Step one, probably the hardest step, is realizing they are no longer in control.”

This is today’s reality for HR & Recruitment Departments, with some such as Oracle choosing to participate and get involved in the conversation, whilst others continue to dictate terms and keep interaction and customer service at arm’s length. Organizations that realize that customers and job seekers have a plethora of choices in all aspects of their lives today know they need to work hard to get your attention and keep your interest. The presentation from Destination Talent from RecruitTECH on Recruitment Advertising 2.0 highlights the many choices and channels available to organizations and job seekers today to both communicate and build brand awareness. The choices are countless and the reality is that organizations have to go where the job seekers are and participate in the conversations to get their attention.

But I’m not just talking about social media in order to start participating and engaging. Job seekers who find that it is too hard to communicate with a prospective employer or apply for a position will go elsewhere and will likely tell others to avoid your organisation as well! Rather than reacting to negative comments and putting out fires after the damage has been done, organisations need to find out how different types of job seekers want to engage with them throughout all parts of the recruitment and on-boarding process. Remember, one size does not fit all for an increasingly customised world.

Is your organization participating? Are the lines of communication two-way or are you still dictating to job seekers? How are you finding out how job seekers want to engage with you?