Candidates are more accessible and comfortable in the social sphere as they can gather unbiased feedback about their prospective employer from current employees through social sites,” said Purva Misra, senior vice president human resources, MakeMyTrip.com at the Boardroom Dialogue organised by TimesJobs.com.
As per a TimesJobs.com survey, 49% of the surveyed employers believe that the key benefit of social recruiting is its potential to reach the inaccessible passive candidates. Nearly 18% employers opined that employing social networking tools would help them source and hire potential tech savvy candidates. Faster filling up of key positions, thereby reducing the recruitment time is also considered an important benefit of social recruiting, as agreed by 16% of the surveyed employers.
In this series of ‘Boardroom Dialogues’, experts agreed that technology, social tools and referrals play a very crucial role while adopting this approach.
The TimesJobs.com survey highlighted the importance of an organisation’s web presence to attract talent. About 92% of the organisations believe that enhanced web presence would assist their organisation to reach out to Gen-Y candidates. Vijay Aloysius, head-recruitment, Samsung India Software Operations, felt spreading the word about the organization was important in appropriate forums in the social media platforms. During these discussions, the general consensus of panelists was that tracking what is being said about the organisation in the social media is of utmost importance.
Recruiters have identified and are tapping the potential of social networking platforms for sourcing candidates but now are striving to employ social networking tools for assessing and engaging potential talent.
Expressing his views on the same, during the Boardroom Dialogue organised by TimesJobs.com in Delhi, Anil Garg, vice president-human resource, Whirlpool, opined that the approach of assessing and engaging talent on social media is an evolving field. He added that since competition is also tapping into the same talent pool, engagement is imperative. He said, “The idea is not only to tap the best talent, but to engage those who are continuously associated with our business and are willing to be part of it.”
Amidst all these benefits, there are few disadvantages of social recruiting as well. Discussing this concern during the Boardroom Dialogue, Sanjeev Kumar, vice president-human resource, Moser Baer Power & Infrastructure Limited, stated that the success ratio of this medium is comparatively lower than traditional channels. He stated, “Last year we recruited 250 people out of that only 3 were from social media. Traditional methods have always paid off so HR is apprehensive to experiment with newer applications. If investment in a channel is giving me fruitful returns, I will use it.”
According to the TimesJobs.com survey, 77% of the surveyed employers believe that difficulty in verifying the candidate’s credentials provided on their profiles proves to be the major limitation of social recruiting. The remaining 23% employers consider ethical and legal issues like discrimination claims to be the limiting factors. Organisations across India have comprehended the potential of social recruiting and are appreciating the results. Yet the application of social media for assessing and engaging talent remains an exciting yet unchartered territory.
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