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SocialMediaNewFrontiers.pdf

Social Media: New Frontiers in Hiring and Recruiting

John G. Joos

The Internet profoundly affects how busi-ness is conducted in the world today, and recruiting and hiring processes are being swept along in this current. The Internet lends itself well to finding and attracting college graduates, skilled workers, managers, and executives. These groups tend to be computer literate, and technology use is an integral part of their daily routines, helping them develop and maintain connections at work as well as in their personal lives.

Much of what is described in this article falls under the broad category of social media. Podcasting, blogging, text messaging, Internet videos, and HR e-mail marketing are all examples of social media. Popular social- media Web sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Wikipedia, and Yahoo! Groups abound and are subscribed to by millions of people, prompting employers to explore ways to use social media in their search for new talent. This article provides an overview of how social media are currently being used by leading- edge companies as well as job seekers.

CORPORATE EXAMPLES

Social media can take a variety of forms, pre- senting different ways to engage an audience, including current and prospective employees. Many are focused on promoting products, services, and a corporate image.

For example, Budweiser, in collaboration with JibJab Media (www.JibJab.com), is devel- oping a series of video commercials that is

being used on broadcast TV and the Internet. Going to Google Video and typing “Bud Com- mercials” as the search term will yield in excess of 140 hits. Most of these hilarious pieces are available for download to your computer, iPod, or other handheld device. Budweiser is counting on a major social-media driver, word of mouth, to attract viewers to its commercials.

Volvo, capitalizing on the promotions related to the release of the motion picture Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, started a blog campaign in which people worldwide could hunt for a pirate-themed Volvo SUV. The “Pirate’s Treasure” contest allowed people to share tips, clues, and even poems through a blog entitled “The Hunt.” Volvo was able to get over 30,000 people involved in “The Hunt,” leading up to and during the release of the film.1

Microsoft, on the other hand, is using the Internet for recruiting purposes. Following is an excerpt from the first posting on its recruit- ing Web site:

Microsoft Recruiting Starts a Web Log (blog). . . . Why would a Recruiting organi- zation want to create a blog? Let us tell you more: Our intended audience is anyone interested in learning more about Microsoft technologies and career opportunities, but we are most focused on reaching out to those who are industry professionals and interested in pursuing technical/engineering roles at Microsoft.

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Our goal is to not only educate you on hap- penings, new technologies, and best practices at Microsoft but also put a “face” to Microsoft Recruiting.2

The preceding examples are just a few of the varied applications of social media.

TARGETING THE TALENT POOL

Employers have always tapped into pools of both active and passive job candidates to fill a wide range of positions. Active job candi- dates are those currently unemployed, who represent 10 percent or less of the total work- force at any given time. Passive job candi- dates are those who are currently employed and not putting a lot of energy into seeking a new position, but who would consider mak- ing a job change if the conditions were right.

The old recruiting paradigm, aimed primar- ily at active candidates, was predominantly a “spray and pray” method. The tools of the trade were want ads, paper applications, résumés, phone calls, face-to-face networking, and so forth. Employers sprayed want ads across pages of print media, and job seekers sprayed large numbers of résumés in the direction of poten- tial employers; both prayed for good results. This method was primarily used by (1) compa- nies who had an immediate need for employees and (2) the unemployed who were actively seeking jobs and were willing to spend their time searching through want ads and/or trade publications, while at the same time mailing résumés and crossing their fingers.

With the advent of the Internet, large-scale employment-related Web sites began to

John G. Joos Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert

blossom. Monster.com, Yahoo’s HotJobs.com, and Jobster.com are just three of the hun- dreds of currently active job-oriented Web sites that seek to attract the attention of both job candidates and employers. These job- oriented Web sites are responsible for creating the category of “passive” job seeker, who, although currently working, is curious about what’s out there. The online job sites make it easy to browse the job market. And as employees have become aware that the aver- age job-tenure rate continues to decline,3 they are increasingly willing to make a job change (or even a career change) if the right opportu- nity presents itself. As reported in 2006 on the Net-temps.com Web site, a WetFeet.com survey of more than 3,000 experienced pro- fessionals conducted in August 2000 showed that 36 percent of respondents who were currently employed were open to accepting a new position within the next six months.4

Given that a large percentage of passive candidates are only occasionally scanning job-board Web sites, the challenge is to engage them in activities that they find useful or interesting, while at the same time making a subtle approach to move them into a more job-seeking mode. Some of the more broadly used social-media methods and processes facilitate this concept.

Blogs

Blog is the contraction for the term Web log—a Web site in which journal or newsletter- type entries are made and frequently updated. Blogs often provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as sports, food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. Commentary of all types is a major characteristic of the blog- ging world. Every imaginable constituency seems to have one or more blogs available to

The old recruiting paradigm, aimed primarily at active candidates, was predominantly a “spray and pray” method.

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them. Blogs may also be included as a feature of a more comprehensive Web site. Blogs are usually hosted and written by a particular individual. In some cases, readers are allowed to respond to the postings and thus engage in a two-way conversation with the blogger and other readers. In other cases, the person writ- ing the blog has the floor at all times.

A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The word blogo- sphere has become part of the lexicon of Internet users due to the large number of blogs currently present. In April 2006, David Sifry of the blog Sifry’s Alerts reported that Technorati.com was tracking 35.3 million blogs, with the blogosphere doubling in size every six months. Blogs have become so numerous that Google has established a search engine that specializes in finding blogs at http://blogsearch.google.com/.

Blogs have the potential to be an excellent method for reaching the large group of pas- sive candidates who are merely curious. By providing a steady stream of interesting arti- cles, research, job-hunting tips, and current information, blogs can get this group’s atten- tion. Specializing in various occupational groups such as accounting, finance and bank- ing, or computer programming may further advance the blog’s value.

Microsoft Corporation has two widely praised blogs of this type. One Louder is a blog directed toward finance and marketing. This innovative blog provides a steady stream of informal chatter, some of which is directed at jobs and some of which is just interesting reading about technical issues, employment processes, and workplace issues and activities at Microsoft.5 The second Microsoft blog, Jobsblog, concentrates on technical careers at Microsoft. A recent posting addressed the issue of why job seekers may not have heard

Social Media: New Frontiers in Hiring and Recruiting Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert

from a recruiter after sending in their résumés.6

For Recruiters and Job Seekers

In addition to blogs that are part of a corpo- rate recruiting effort, hundreds of blogs are produced by recruiting firms. These blogs are also designed to get the attention of both active and passive candidates. Many of these recruiting firms and their blogs specialize in a specific discipline such as finance, account- ing, scientific topics, human resources, mar- keting, and information technology. Industry and/or career field specificity help recruiting firms and candidates focus their efforts in a more efficient manner.

There are even blogs about recruiting blogs. Recruiting.com contains a list of 40 recruiting blogs, as well as a steady stream of conversation about recruiting blogs.

Establishing a blog as a recruiting tool is well within the reach of any organization or manager. Free and low-cost software is readily available for download on the Internet. For example, Google.com offers blogging software that sets up in three steps. The major issue in establishing a blog of any type is keeping the content timely, interesting, and focused.

Blogging, however, is not just for organiza- tions that do hiring. Setting up a personal blog is also a useful tool for those who are seeking jobs and who want to differentiate themselves in the job market. An article on SimplyHired.com titled “7 Things a Job Seeker Can Do with a Blog” provides a nice checklist of creative uses of a blog.7 Tips such as “Make

Blogs have the potential to be an excellent method for reaching the large group of passive candidates who are merely curious.

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your résumé and video available on your blog” and “Ask your previous employers to write a recommendation to be posted on your blog” are included in this article.

Wikis

Ward Cunningham is credited with introduc- ing the term wiki, derived from a Hawaiian term, wiki wiki, meaning fast or quick. A wiki is a type of Web site that allows authors to collaborate on the information provided on the site; generally, if visitors register, they can easily edit or change the information on the site. Wikis have come to be known for their ease of use in collaborative authoring online. Wiki also refers to the collaborative software itself.

Unlike blogs, which are usually moderated and written by one person and sometimes allow contributions by the readers of the blog, a wiki is a totally collaborative effort by all who want to contribute (frequently with some type of authorization or permission from the wiki owner). One of the most widely known wikis is Wikipedia at www.wikipedia. org. Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia cur- rently containing over 1,400,000 articles in English, all written by volunteer contributors. There are also a multitude of Wikipedia con- tributions in languages other than English. An important aspect of Wikipedia is that it stays more current than any printed encyclopedia; thus, some of the newer terminology that is developing in the technical world each day is more likely to be defined or described initially

John G. Joos Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert

in Wikipedia than in other reference resources.

Employment-Oriented Wikis

In the late 1990s, corporations caught on to the idea of using wikis as a collaborative pro- cess for developing private databases of knowledge held by their employees. Project communication, intranets, and documenta- tion evolved into wiki-style databases in many corporations. Much of this information is hidden behind firewalls and is not avail- able through the public Internet.

An excellent example of an employment- oriented wiki can be found at the WikiBooks.org Web site. WikiBooks.org hosts a collection of open-content instructional resources covering a variety of subjects. Started in mid-2003, WikiBooks has grown to more than 21,000 instructional modules in three years.

One of the wikibooks available on this site is The Find Employment Wikibook. This site offers a wikibook that is authored by volun- teer contributors, many who have experience and expertise in employment matters. Quoting from the book’s introduction, “This wikibook is an attempt to explain the process of finding a job and getting hired for that job. It will explain such topics as finding a job, writing a résumé, and performing at an interview.”8

As with blogging software, wiki software and host sites are readily available on the Internet at low cost. Setting up a wiki and hosting it is well within the abilities of the average manager. The challenge is to capture the information that will be of interest to potential employees. Read/write access to a wiki is controllable, which makes it possible for company employees to have read/write access, but allows those outside the organiza- tion read-only access. An interesting idea for

Unlike blogs, which are usually moderated and written by one person and sometimes allow contributions by the read- ers of the blog, a wiki is a totally collaborative effort by all who want to contribute.

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a wiki is to engage an organization (or a group of selected employees) in creating a wiki that describes the jobs in the organization.

Podcasting

On its way to becoming a mainstream com- munication medium, a podcast is an audio file that is delivered via the Internet to com- puters or digital handheld devices. Think of it as radio on demand. Some 12 percent of Internet users say they have downloaded a podcast so they can listen to it or view it at a later time.9

Originally designed as entertainment or information files, which were downloaded to the Apple iPod, podcasts have grown well beyond their original intended use. Podcast- ing has exploded to include all types of media content such as entertainment talk shows, music, tutorials, lectures, interviews with subject-matter experts, commentaries, and information about recruiting and hiring. In other words, any type of audio content that can be imagined can become a podcast. Lis- teners are free to select the time and place that they want to listen and can maintain archives of podcasts that they can access on demand. Podcasting technology allows any- one to become a citizen broadcaster.

Many podcasts that provide information on a regularly scheduled basis have a feed- reader technology called RSS (an acronym for really simple syndication) feeds associated with them. RSS feeds were originally used as a means to automatically deliver updated news headlines to computers and handheld devices. RSS has evolved to become a simple method for readers to automatically check for updates of the content on their choice of Web sites. Feed readers, such as RSS and Atom, are widely available freeware downloads that read and display updated Web-site content.

Social Media: New Frontiers in Hiring and Recruiting Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert

Podcasting Job Information

Simple five-minute podcasts with job infor- mation, career tips, or on-camera interviews from new hires or current employees can be created inexpensively and produced quickly. The fact that a company makes podcasts available and its competitors do not is a signi- ficant message about which is the more forward-thinking organization.

Goulston & Storrs, a Boston-based law firm, has a series of podcasts on its Web site called the “Goulston & Storrs Recruiting Podcast Series.” The podcasts let potential employees “listen directly to our partners and associates answering questions about different aspects of what it’s like to be a lawyer at our firm.” Each one-to-two-minute podcast addresses questions that a candidate may have about the law firm and its policies and working conditions.10

The Technical Careers Group at Microsoft has produced a series of podcasts featuring short pieces that interest technical-type peo- ple. Interviews with newly hired employees, experts, and product specialists are all found on this Web site.11

IBM created a series of online peer-to-peer podcasts designed so employees can share their knowledge with other interested profes- sionals inside and outside the organization. “The New Intellectual Property Marketplace” is a podcast by Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM vice president of technology, strategy, and innovation. Dr. Wladawsky-Berger discusses intellectual property issues and how the ability to share ideas stimulates innovation. IBM podcasts allow listeners to

Originally designed as entertainment or information files, which were downloaded to the Apple iPod, podcasts have grown well beyond their original intended use.

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subscribe to the series using a specialized feed, which will automatically provide access to future lectures as they are released. An RSS feed is available for those who want to automatically keep up with this series.12

Employer Marketing Videos

Video is an excellent tool for small- to medium-sized companies that do not have a large footprint in the job marketplace. Videos allow the company to put a name and face together to project to potential employees a sense of the culture and working conditions of a company. It also gives the company a progressive, leading-edge image.

GettingHired.com is an excellent example of a recruiting Web site that uses streaming videos as part of its selection of tools. The Web site features two types of videos: employer marketing videos and job-seeker video marketing profiles.13

GettingHired’s employer marketing video site allows its employer clients to upload a two- to three-minute video to “present your company to the potential candidate.” Its job- seeker video marketing tool is particularly useful for graduating students seeking jobs where excellent communication and presenta- tion skills are strong job requirements. Get- tingHired’s unique technology creates a Web link on the candidate’s professional profile (résumé) that connects to his or her video profile, thus providing potential employers with a more complete package.

Truckflix.com is a transportation industry job board Web site that features both recruiting podcasts and recruiting vlogs (or videoblogs, a

John G. Joos Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert

blog that includes video) by various trucking companies. According to the Web site, “Truck Drivers, Owner Operators, Truck Driving School Graduates, Truck Driving Jobs, Trucking Companies, and Streaming Media Technology all come together at Truckflix.com.”14 The site also provides links to employers’ job applica- tions as part of the service. This site is particu- larly well done and is worth a visit just to observe the depth and scope of the social media approach.

Many organizations have proven them- selves to be quite clever at creating short in-house videos for training and development. Creating videos that support the recruiting and hiring process is well within their capa- bility. Software that converts videos for use on the Internet is readily available.

Text Messaging

Technically known as SMS (short message ser- vice), text messaging is a popular service with many younger-generation cell-phone users. SMS permits the sending of short messages (text messages) between cell phones, other hand- held devices, computers, and even landline telephones and is an enormously popular medium among members of Generation Y (millennials). Text messages are the digital equivalent of whispering. They are discreet, quiet (that is, no ringing cell phone announc- ing an incoming message), and quick.

Attracting Younger Members of the Workforce

An article on TMC.net notes that a recruit- ing coordinator with MetLife’s Goodman Financial Group, James Barra,15 sends text messages to confirm interviews with young candidates or answer questions; however, he does not use them to make an initial contact. Just four years out of college himself, Barra

Videos allow the company to put a name and face together to project to potential employees a sense of the culture and working conditions of a company.

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says texting is great for students because “it doesn’t disturb people around you.” It’s a quick, concise way to communicate “under the radar screen.”

Members of Generation Y, who are the college graduates of 2002 and beyond, have been steeped in a fast-response culture. High- speed Internet connections, communicating by text message in real-time, cell phones, and social media Web sites have all had a strong influence on this generation. To appeal to this group, recruiters and employers currently use two strategies: (1) send a targeted e-mail and then follow up with the same people at some point in the future by text messages, or (2) send a text message to just those candidates who click through in response to the initial e-mail.

ON THE LEADING EDGE

Companies increasingly are using advanced Internet technologies to find potential employ- ees and get a very focused message in front of them. This process is known as search-engine marketing (SEM), a marketing process that drives traffic to a particular Web site by plac- ing the Web site listing in a variety of search engines— for example, Google, Dog Pile, Alta Vista, and Yahoo.

Search-engine optimization (SEO) is all about having the appropriate keywords asso- ciated with a company’s Web site to optimize a company’s SEM efforts. SEO increases traf- fic to a company’s site by having the site rank high (hopefully, on the first page) in the results that search engines return when being queried on keywords that describe the busi- ness, its products, or services. It can be expanded to attract potential employees as well, simply by including the appropriate keywords. SEO is best left to professionals who specialize in this area; it is a process that

Social Media: New Frontiers in Hiring and Recruiting Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert

is part art and part technology that considers over a hundred variables and requires expert- level familiarity with the rules that search engines use to determine page rank.

Once traffic is driven to a particular site, a company’s Web site must be able to capture and hold the attention of the types of candi- dates who are being sought for a given job. This means providing the types of media and the topics that will resonate with prospective employees. For this reason, leading-edge companies are including blogging, podcast- ing, and video blogs as an integral part of their Web sites.

The latest revolutionary change in hiring and recruiting is a process that combines social networking blogs with job-search tech- nology. Seattle-based start-up Jobster, Inc., has a new Web site with a unique approach.16

Jobster’s main source of revenue is from doing deals with employers (400 clients and growing) for posting job listings. Boeing, Star- bucks, and Google are some of its clients. In addition, Jobster provides job tips, Webcasts, blogs, and personalized job alerts. However, the thing that makes Jobster unique is that it has a blog that allows employees, past and present, to blog about their companies. This allows people to provide an inside look at a company and its culture. Jobster makes it easy to find these listed companies by simply typing their names in a “search tags” box.

Another unique Jobster service is client- based recruiting campaigns. Jobster’s employer clients have the ability to create recruiting campaigns that contain multiple job listings. Jobster works with clients to develop and send e-mails to the clients’ employees whom

Companies increasingly are using advanced Internet technologies to find potential employees and get a very focused message in front of them.

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they think could be helpful in finding qualified job candidates. Employees are encouraged to share the job openings with others in their social circles, recommend a potential candidate, or apply for the opening themselves.

Job candidates have an increasing ability to access information that isn’t provided by a company’s PR firm, HR department, or pro- fessional marketers. Now current and former employees, and anyone else, can generate information about a company and its jobs. Social-media processes are fueling this trend. A company’s desire to control the image it wants to present to potential employees is in serious jeopardy from thousands of millenni- als and other social-media users who can, and do, communicate with their colleagues by the click of a send button.

PULLING IT ALL TOGETHER

Social-media tools and techniques as currently used are not a direct replacement for tradi- tional hiring processes, but rather a supplement to them. College recruiting, particularly of millennials, is a high-growth area for social media. This group, with their past and current exposure to technology, responds extremely well to the social-media environment.

Social-media processes are dependent on the education and skill level of the targeted audience. Those seeking minimum-wage jobs, low-skill jobs, and many hourly positions are not good candidates for these processes due to the low computer literacy and use rates in this target population.

Successful use of social media is also dependent on industry norms. The informa- tion technology industry is abuzz with social media. If you are hiring and recruiting in this industry, you must not only use social media, but also use it well. Information technology, engineering, accounting, and finance all have a robust array of discipline-specific, employment-related, social-media choices.

Whether or not to take the time and expense to develop social-media processes often is a function of the size of the hiring organization and the amount of employee throughput. This is determined by turnover rates and growth in the organization. An organization that has only occasional need for hiring may want to consider adding some of these processes to its main Web site rather than going to the expense of setting up a recruitment and hiring site that stands alone.

Keep in mind that one of the best uses of social media is to attract the about 30 percent of people who are lurking about looking for better opportunities but are not yet committed to a full-blown job search. Many managers have ultimately arrived at the conclusion that the best way to win in the ongoing search for talent is to entice those already employed elsewhere. Social media provides a means of attracting that pool of high-quality candidates.

NOTES

1. http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2006/06/27/ 012864.html.

2. Originally accessed September 17, 2006 at http://blog. simplyhired.com/job-seekers/.

3. Engeman, K. (2005, January). Keep your résumé current: The causes behind declining job tenure. Regional Economist. Retrieved February 13, 2008, from http://www. stls.frb.org/publications/re/2005/a/pages/keep_resume.html.

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Social-media tools and techniques as currently used are not a direct replacement for traditional hiring processes, but rather a supplement to them.

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4. http://www.net-temps.com/recruiters/recart/index. htm?id=27.

5. http://blogs.msdn.com/heatherleigh/. 6. http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/. 7. http://blogs.msdn.com/jobsblog/. 8. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Find_Employment. 9. http:// www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/193/report_display.asp.

10. http://www.goulstonstorrs.com/JoinUs/AttorneysAnd ParaLegals/attyPara.asp?id=672.

Social Media: New Frontiers in Hiring and Recruiting Employment Relations Today DOI 10.1002/ert

11. http://feeds.feedburner.com/jobsblogscast. 12. http://domino.watson.ibm.com/comm/www_innovate.nsf/

pages/world.intellectual.html. 13. http://www.flashvue.com/learnmore_ee.html. 14. http://www.truckflix.com/drivers.php. 15. Barra, J. (2006, February 5). Employers take on the

“millennials.” Retrieved February 13, 2008, from http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2006/02/05/1343245.htm.

16. http://www.jobster.com.

John G. Joos, DBA, is an adjunct professor in the Nova Southeastern University Huizenga School of Business and Entrepreneurship, teaching in both the master’s in business admin- istration and master’s in human resources programs. Previously, he served as a line manager and HR manager at BellSouth Corporation. His consulting services focus on organizational development. He may be contacted via e-mail at [email protected]. This article is excerpted and adapted from the 2008 Pfeiffer Annual: Management Development (with CD-ROM), Robert C. Preziosi (Ed.), by permission of Pfeiffer/A Wiley Imprint.

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