ALC - CareerArc blog

Are you reconsidering your talent acquisition tactics? Or making the business case for social recruiting and employer branding initiatives? Learn the key social media stats recruiters, hiring managers, and talent acquisition professionals should know to inform your strategy.

If you are an HR or talent leader in your organization, chances are you are constantly on the hunt for ways to reach better talent, elevate your employment brand, and improve the processes that support these initiatives.
However, experimenting with new approaches and improving upon past methods can be difficult. Old habits stick, legacy systems persist, and the status quo can remain unchallenged for years.
The talent acquisition and talent management professionals we work with everyday are often the change agents in their organization who ask the most important question: “Why?”
“Why fix what isn’t (perceived as) broken?” “Why rock the boat?”
Often the most difficult task for these change agents is convincing internal stakeholders of the power of employee advocacy, candidate experience, and talent brand awareness have on today’s hiring strategy.
Here are the most compelling social media stats to help illustrate the potential reach and influence of a social approach to recruitment, candidate engagement, and employment branding.

 Guest Post: By Alex Youdim, Client Success Manager, CareerArc

Alright. The title of this post may be harsh, and admittedly it’s an oversimplification.

Sure, there are several factors out of your control that could explain why a particular social media recruiting campaign does not return job potential candidates on Twitter you expected at that time–such as seasonality, or hyper-niche job openings or fields that lack an audience on social media.  
But in my experience, regardless of the industry or job type, usually the real culprit behind unsuccessful recruiting on twitter is the lack of an informed strategy and creativity–the “art” of social strategy often overlooked and yet more crucial than ever to any business use of social media.
Below is an example of how we helped one of our clients generate a surprising amount of applicants through one Twitter recruiting campaign, with a bit of creativity and iteration. But first, before we talk strategy, let’s talk about the main building block to any Twitter campaign–the hashtag.

Nearly 60% of candidates have had a poor candidate experience, and 72% of those candidates shared that experience online or with someone directly. We surveyed 1200 professionals to find out why.

We asked 826 job seekers and 374 HR professionals on their thoughts on the State of the Candidate Experience, focusing on each stage–from the application, notification, and beyond– and we found several disconnects between what candidates expect and what employers deliver in the applicant process.
The infographic below follows the applicant journey, revealing surprising stats, and the risks and opportunities they present today’s employer brands.

It may be easy to assume that the bigger the brand, the bigger the budget and bandwidth. For talent acquisition, this means more resources to experiment with new tech and new approaches in hiring and employer branding.

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world’s top sales awards, business development awards, contact center awards, and customer service awards. CareerArc was presented with three Silver Stevie® Awards at the tenth annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service this past weekend:

The industry is all a buzz about employer branding these days, and with good reason: The labor market is tightening, and today’s discerning job applicants turn to Twitter, LinkedIn, and employer review sites for a peek behind the company curtain.

These sites and social platforms have become a destination for potential candidates to learn how companies actually function (or dysfunction) judging from employee feedback and fellow applicants’ candid reviews of the candidate experience.
In our Employer Branding Study we found that 75% of job seekers consider an employer’s brand before even deciding to apply for a job.
But how does a company go about shaping, or reshaping, its brand? We see employer brand being molded by four main areas of influence – company culture, employee opinions, candidate opinions, and the corporate brand.


While corporate brand and company culture are driven from within the organization, employee and candidate opinions are based on direct experience and interaction with an employer and reflect not only how an employer treats its people, but reveal a company’s values and ethics which guide their business decisions. 
Talent acquisition professionals today are ever pushed to straddle the line of marketer and recruiter, what we termed the “HR-Marketer hybrid.” Hiring professionals who are just starting to take on these hybrid roles are fast becoming the experts and leaders of employment branding in their organization.
Related: 3 Signs You’re a Pro at Social Recruiting
We view the HR-Marketer placed strategically at the intersection of these four corners of employer brand, helping shape and communicate the company culture and corporate brand to the candidate audience, and ensuring those values are truly reflected in the candidate and employee experience.
These four areas of employer brand influence are regularly debated and are themselves quickly evolving. Here are the latest, relevant news pieces to show how these areas are being studied, perceived, and reshaped:

The recruitment and talent acquisition field has transformed dramatically in just the past decade, with most of the disruptive changes resulting from the rise of social media and review sites that have turned the hiring landscape into a more transparent, always-on, and increasingly mobile environment.

 

We are thrilled to announce that CareerArc has been named a finalist in the 10th annual Stevie® Awards for Sales & Customer Service and will ultimately be declared a Bronze, Silver, or Gold winner in three categories:

The 2016 predictions, trend pieces, and recruiting stats are in. At the top of each year, thought leaders in the HR space look back and review main challenges and priorities that were top-of-mind, and then predict which of those will endure or change in the year ahead.
After surveying the many trend pieces, we noted the most common data points, observations, and predictions that human capital and hiring experts appear to agree on — the “safe bets” that the HR community are making, and which are most likely to impact hiring in 2016.

‘Tis the season for list-making, and we are excited to share that we have made the HR Tech Outlook annual list of Top 10 Recruitment Software Solution Providers in 2015.

Read the entire write-up from HR Tech Outlook’s December issue.
We are thrilled to end the year with this achievement and reflect on 2015, which turned out to be one of our most eventful: