The Compass

LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube…. You are familiar with all of them, yes, but have you applied them to your business’s recruitment strategy? Accessing, attracting and securing potential employees through each of these mediums works on so many levels. The best news is that getting started doesn’t cost a cent!

Five Top Tips to Recruiting on the World Wide Web
LinkedIn - Set up your personal and Company profile on LinkedIn. Think about the image you want to create about yourself and your Company. Spend a little time looking at different profiles and work out what you find works best. When wording your “Company Overview”  and “Products and Services Section” think about the ‘Keywords’ which not only attract clients, increase your SEO and describe your business but also position you as an “employer of choice”

1. Video - Create your own You-tube channel and start getting your Company live on air. Start with a short video of employees in the work place, talking about what they do, and how they enjoy the culture. Get your video to reflect real people with the real culture of the workplace. Embed this video into your Company web site.
2. Job Boards - Job boards such as SEEK.com still play a vital role is accessing talent – however, you need to link these advertisements with every social media forum you utilise also.
3. Facebook – Set up a Company Page. Use your Facebook page to reveal the people behind the brand.
4. Twitter – Don’t only use your brand to attract business and stay in touch with your industry community. Use your brand to follow the type of people you are interested in recruiting. Most of them will follow you in return, so when you are interested in hiring you will have a captured audience who you can directly feed information to. Link Job advertisements to your tweets.
5. Social media has turned Recruitment on its head – it has taken away the power of large recruitment agency databases and given Companies direct access to the largest corporate database on the planet. Now you need to harness this power in a systematic and structured way to improve the quality of applicant lists you are attracting. 

Our key tip for social media recruitment on the cheap is you must take the time to understand the prospective and new employee’s motivational drivers i.e. find out what is important to them. For student graduates it may be time to do internships and projects that will fuel their career development. For working parents, the job flexibility to work close to home and be available for school drop off and pick up can be a key driver. For others, the support and or flexibility you may be able to offer to them to pursue other life interests outside of work may be an important factor. The point is taking the time to find out what motivates people and being flexible enough to cater for these needs will pay dividends. Four “No cost” HR techniques to ensure your employees are engaged and motivated in your workplace.

• Sit down with each employee and work out what interests they have and what their priorities are, what motivates them, what their long term goals are. Make sure that there is a strong alignment with their personal career aspirations and the role they are performing in the company. 
• Think about how working for your Company can help them achieve in other areas of their life that may be important to them. This maybe through supporting the volunteer organisations they work for, enabling them to exercise during their lunch break, negotiating flexible work arrangements. Focus on the whole person not just the business stuff!!! 
• How you value your employees can create a bond that will positively impact your retention of great people. Some people appreciate private recognition through a pat on the back, an e-mail or a surprise thankyou card. Others prefer public recognition around their peers, whilst some people prefer reward based recognition such as a team lunch, tickets, food etc. Understanding these individual drivers can make a big difference to an employee and their motivation and productivity at work.
• Provide regular feedback on performance and keep lines of communication open. Taking an active interest in the person and their career demonstrates that you care. When employees see that you genuinely care they are much more likely to be open with you if they feel things are not going well for them at work.   

The bottom line of retention and engagement is that although social media is changing the way we interact and work, at the core of every workplace is people and relationships – which need respect, trust and the investment of time.

To improve your recruitment results dramatically or if you want to quickly get a handle on social media like LinkedIn then email us now on enquiries@edwardgeorge.com.au or call on 08 9457 4566. In the meantime find out more about us on our website www.edwardgeorge.com.au. You can also follow us on LinkedIn and @EdwardGeorgeHR on Twitter and “Like” us on Facebook to keep up to date with the latest industry news.