Are you using social media to support your hiring strategy?
We are in an employer’s market.
The UK unemployment rate for June to August 2020 stood at 4.5%, 0.6 percentage points higher than a year earlier and 0.4 percentage points higher than the previous quarter.
This has positives for hirers since there are many more candidates available. But it also makes it harder to attract – and hire – the right ones.
These right ones are not only the people who have the right mix of hard and soft skills but also those who will fit into your company culture. (As a startup, we know that working here would not be for anyone.)
And our research found that it costs £11.353 and will take 28 days to hire traditionally for an SME. That’s a potentially expensive mistake if you go for the wrong candidate.
Meanwhile, there’s the opposite danger you will miss the perfect new hire among the weeds.
One way of helping improve the likelihood of employing the right talent is by using social media to find and track down the right people and tailor your company’s branding to attract them.
To get ahead of the competition when hiring in lockdown, read our four top tips to help you maximise the social media channels as part of your hiring strategy.
Stand out from the crowd
With UK job applications growing 33.9% in the third quarter, companies probably won’t struggle to attract talent. But how do you make sure your web presence attracts the employees you really want?
Firstly, remember you are up against competitors also hoping to make the very best hires. You need to develop messaging about your business to encourage your ideal candidate to apply.
Who are they and what is your value to them? Do you have a unique product or service they would be excited to develop or sell? What other kind of benefits does working for your company bring? (Make sure the messages fit the rest of your company branding.)
Having got inside the mind of the ideal hire, you can expand the writing for your social media presence and web site. And, when you are treating, make sure you fully inhabit the brand as you are looking for hires.
For inspiration, check out how brands hired using really creative techniques.
Join in online
You don’t have to wait for your perfect candidate to knock on your door. Instead, act headhunter and track them down yourself!
With LinkedIn’s “#opentowork” feature, you can find people who are looking for a new position. It’s similar to the #forhire hashtag over on Twitter. Combine that with some clever searching for different expertise and job seniority levels on industry platforms such as GitHub, StackOverflow and Kaggle (if you’re looking for tech talent) and you can add to your shortlist in no time.
You can also initiate useful conversations with the right hashtags; if you’re looking for a developer, using the hashtag #devjobs will increase your reach on Twitter, while engaging with the “developer” subreddit on Reddit can also help.
Use the support of your employees
Your employees are your would-be perfect new hire’s colleagues, the people they will be spending all their time with.
Allowing your staff to share and talk about your company on social media can be the catalyst to spark the curiosity of a potential candidate. To encourage this, give them the right resources to help them promote your company such as case studies, product launches and other newsletter items. Then, ask them to tag you. A bit of training from the marketing person will go down better than strict rules.
You can also encourage them to help share posts to support your hiring strategy; apart from actual job openings, success stories will also put your brand on their network’s radar. Done correctly, harnessing the power of these enthusiastic brand ambassadors will draw attention to your company culture and expand your brand awareness with the recruits you need.
Show off your startup culture
Working for a startup is very different from working for a large corporation: it’s more rewarding, but potentially more demanding as well. So, when you are thinking about appealing to the best candidate make sure you are clear and honest about the company culture.
To attract people with the right kind of personality, try to give candidates an idea of how the company actually functions so they can judge for themselves. Use the power of storytelling to walk them through a typical day – or a project – from start to finish. Obviously, your company culture video needs to show it’s a great place to work.
As most businesses are now working remotely, candidates might find it even more daunting to join a company, so providing them with what it’s like might ease their nerves. You can put this on your site and social media channels and anywhere you are listing your open positions.
Conclusion
Following the above tips is bound to give your startup the edge to support your hiring strategy and talent acquisition. You can save costs if you avoid the traditional jobs boards and sites – which are seeing an increase in applications per position – and spend more wisely elsewhere.
At PitchMe, we save startups 50% of their time and money on their hiring process, on average, compared to traditional recruiters.
Find out more or signup for free and post your position; you’ll get three candidates unlocked and only have to pay if you want to meet more.