53% of UK employers use social networks to research candidates
The results of an interesting survey conducted by CareerBuilder has been picked up in the UK online recruitment press and will, no doubt, be quoted as evidence of the inevitable transformation of the online recruitment world by social media. The report states that over 53% of employers use social networks to research candidates. Imagine, 53% of employers are researching candidates on social networks.
It’s a remarkable stat; but like all stats it isn’t the full story. The Careerbuilder survey sample comprised 307 hiring managers surveyed online who had, what was reported as, ‘at least significant involvement in hiring decisions.’ Clearly, this is a sample of HR professionals not employers. And HR professionals are present in only a fraction UK companies.
Clearly 307 HR people checking Facebook for candidates is a very different proposition to 53% of UK employers doing so.
The survey is indicative of the buzz about social media recruitment. Social media recruitment is being touted as the ‘next big thing’ in recruitment. I don’t doubt it will be the ‘next big thing.’ But one has to be cautious about what that ‘next big thing’ will be. Indeed, for those of us involved in online recruitment one has to be cautious even about assumptions about recruiting online.
At the recent Hello Digital conference in Birmingham, I was stunned to learn from Deputy Head of Birmingham City Council Paul Tilsey that a full 40% of Birmingham business are not even online. We can safely assume that, for recruiting purposes, a large portion of this 40% don’t recruit online, never mind social media recruiting.
While many experts in recruitment are arguing that social media is the way to go and that job boards are over, they would appear to be pre-emptive. Rather, it is more probable that, for the foreseeable future, job boards will be the first step for employers into online recruitment —especially for sourcing. Social networks will play, as they do already, a part in the candidate screening process but they are still some way from becoming efficient souring tools.
The Careerbuilder.co.uk survey is worth a look, however. It points out some of the things that HR professionals like and don’t like when they do check your online profile.
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[...] In this regard social media has the potential of great convenience – communication with others is just a click away. Equally important, however, social media has also proved problematic – think of people that got fired for being on Facebook while actually on sick leave or of recently reported recruiters’ practices. [...]
[...] In this regard social media has the potential of great convenience – communication with others is just a click away. Equally important, however, social media has also proved problematic – think of people that got fired for being on Facebook while actually on sick leave or of recently reported recruiters’ practices. [...]