Social recruitment market is going crazy these days as more and more companies are getting into the segment which has huge potential. Two weeks ago,Social Talent was asked to pick the brains of recruiters, agency and in-house alike, in their use of Social in their recruiting mix. There was such scarce up-to-date data available on how recruiters actually use the net to hire that some of the results of our survey took them by pleasant surprise.
Recruiters from Ireland (31%), the UK (26%), the USA (23%), Canada (5%), India (2%), South Africa (2%), Australia (2%), Hungary (2%) and others (7%) answered the quick survey which looked into their social networking for recruitment habits and its success, their primary sources of new candidates, their use of Job Boards and its success, their daily activity as a recruiter, and their outlook on their recruitment market.
Social networking is still such an important part of the recruitment mix for recruiters, with 99% of respondents using LinkedIn for recruiting, followed closely by Twitter at 67% – well ahead of Facebook at 45%. Facebook remains challenging for recruiters, as it’s generally not a place where people search out jobs.
Social recruiting is effective, with 85% of respondents claiming they’ve recruited a candidate they found on a social network. Of those who were successful, 99% of recruiters have hired a candidate they found through LinkedIn. The recruiting success of Twitter and Facebook are low, at 19% and 18% respectively.
Interestingly though, while recruiters have almost unilaterally across the board use social in their recruiting process, the primary sources of new candidates remains diverse, with under half (42%) using social network profiles (like LinkedIn, Skillpages, Worky etc), 18% using paid-for CV databases (like Monster, CareerBuilder and Jobsite), 17% using their own database, 13% using CV’s or applications to advertised roles, and 9% using referrals for primary sources. There is no one source of new candidates – spread your net far and wide and don’t limit yourself to just one source!
Job Boards are still essential in the recruitment mix, with 83% of recruiters saying they still advertise their vacancies. 63% of respondents have either maintained or increased their activity on job boards versus last year, and 65% of respondents have placed either a similar or higher number of hires from job boards against last year.
The most encouraging signs of the survey, however, was the overwhelmingly positive reflections on the recruitment market by the recruiters who responded. 58% of respondents said they’re working on more vacancies than a year ago, it’s a more competitive market than a year ago (which means business is picking up overall!), and that 31% of recruiters find they’re busier than ever. 22% of respondents say their team of recruiters has grown in the last year too, which is again a really positive sign.
Recruiters are in a lucky position that they can see the beginnings and endings of recessions before most other industries, as the slowdown or pick-up in jobs is the most immediate key to determining economic activity. Great to see that so many of you are feeling positive about the marketplace!
Checkout the infographic below as well.
What’s your view on the survey? Leave your thoughts in the comments!
Originally posted on the SocialTalent blog.
