Use of Technology and Social Media for Talent Search

The brilliance of this century is seen maximum in the technology sector. The vast platform of gizmos and online services developed has penetrated in all sectors of the corporate world as well. Social media is no longer just a medium for casual interaction; in fact it has reached a whole new level professionally. Research has been conducted worldwide to find out what the graduates today expect from their employer organizations. The result is clear. Employer organizations are expected to keep up with today’s latest technology available to reach out to their future recruits. Social media sites like LinkedIn, Face book, Twitter etc are all providing ways for companies to brand themselves better in the market today.

It goes without saying that potential recruits value a personal touch- a face to face contact with a recruiter company. But it is also highly beneficial for both to be updated with technological advancements and make the best use of them such as:

·The company official website is still and will always be the best way for effective recruitment. In addition to it though, it can be linked to a professional page of the company on a social networking site for broader marketing and talent search.

·The job portal websites like naukri.com, monster.com come second in importance where recruits can post their resume online and get connected with various companies to find a suitable job. These sites give the company as well as the potential recruit a wide range of options to choose appropriately from.

·The more new and improved use of technology to reach more talent is use of advertising through social networking sites like LinkedIn, Glassdoor, Facebook. This gives the company a stronger brand name with the young technology-savvy job applicants and helps them reach out to more prospective candidates.

·Apart from these convenient ways to use technology, the demand today is that an organization must be able to take this use of technology to the next step and develop mobile career pages or downloadable apps. At present only one-fifth of employers (20%) have a mobile career website or career related app.

The use of such technology is to make recruiters and potential recruits get in touch with each other with ease and convenience. Employers who want to capture the brightest and best young talent should be making their presence felt across all forms of social media and technology. Accenture, the professional services firm, has employed the LinkedIn site to good effect with the use of staff testimonials, career path information and video content. This gives the company a good brand name as a technologically advanced organization.

Despite the popularity of social media, corporate websites remain most popular conduit for online activity (more than 70% of applicants acknowledge this fact). Research suggests that young candidates are hesitant to share all of their private information online and prefer a direct contact with the employers. For this, ease of online application to any recruiter company is essential and the technology today allows direct contact to organizations via email, video conferencing through Skype etc.  Job postings can be made available via social media or job portal site with a direct link to the company website so that no compromise is made about the privacy of the applicant. Worldwide companies today are using the best tools for online talent communication and recruitment selection. Research conducted for online career presence of more than 2400 companies across Europe, US and Asia found that some brands are significantly better at promoting themselves to young people than others. This gives them an edge and significantly improves their chances of acquiring better suited talent for their organization.