Social Media V’s Human Interaction

Technology developments have made social media activity critical for a company to build a competitive difference – especially the recruitment industry.

In order to thrive in recruitment you need to embrace digital platforms: LinkedIn being a key player.

Organisations use recruitment companies to ultimately find top talent for their vacant roles. In order for recruiters to stay ahead of competitors they cannot solely rely on job boards or responses to their adverts.

Clients are paying for your brand, for you to identify and engage with leading candidates in the market and create a strong pool for them to interview – having a strong personal brand in your market cannot be over looked. LinkedIn, if used well can be a great platform to create a community and source passive candidates that are not active on job boards, but due to your personal brand identity– they are willing to hear about your opportunities in the market.

As much as technology is becoming a critical aspect of candidate sourcing, technology will never replace recruitment. Recruitment requires human skills to build relationships and manage processes. To manage feelings, influence and understand candidates is a skill that technology will never capable of, this is the other half of what clients pay for and a strong reason why they use recruitment companies. Good recruiters have strong emotional intelligence, influence and negotiation skills, they are organised and can manage the process successfully, monitoring the expectations and thoughts of both the client and candidate throughout.

Technology is becoming critical to find new talent, to build your personal brand and to stay ahead of competitors. Some candidates will be getting headhunted monthly or even weekly, so they no longer jump to hear about new opportunities. Because of this – recruiters need to find a balance; being social, blogging, connecting and building your brand online is critical and using social media channels is important to find new, quality candidates. That said, be careful not to rely on this, don’t hide behind emails, or LinkedIn, don’t forget the other half of recruitment – the human side; pick up the phone, go on meetings, build rapport and show personality. Clients are using you for your human skills – not just you’re social, emails cannot get across the same passion, tone, or explanation. Emails cannot answer the immediate questions or overcome the initial objections or doubts. Emails make it extremely easy for people to object, ignore or reject introductions, it is critical to not to get wrapped up in new digital technology and forget about the phone.

This theory can be related to our biggest market, Shopping Centres – using social media channels are a great way to promote your offerings, services and build your brand, but when customers arrive – it is the personality and experience delivered by a scheme that keeps consumers coming back!

Katrina Whitehead, Marketing and Operations, Foundation Recruitment