The future is brightest for social media savvy recruiters

Social media has become such an important tool for recruiters in such a short space of time. The ability to grow an active, online community is now essential for modern recruitment businesses as well as for individual recruiters, and it’s a factor that, over recent years, I’ve given more and more weight to when hiring consultants for my own teams. The future is brightest for social media savvy recruiters.

Since starting my own business recently, I’ve seen what an important tool social media can be for helping to build a visual and corporate identity that people recognise and connect with. 60% of Tile Hill’s community of interim managers and independent consultants have found us via social and registered their interest through the online tool on our website. Hundreds of people have read, liked and commented on our blog. This support and interaction gives a great motivational boost you’re starting out as well as helping to spread the word. What’s more, when I’m meeting interim managers and independent consultants who want to join our community, what I often hear is that they like our ethos or connect with our values. All before they’ve met or even spoken personally with anyone.

I’ve lost track of the number of assignments I’ve won over the years where the interim manager or independent consultant taking up the project has connected with me via social media. These online communities have already become far richer sources of talent than recruitment businesses' own databases, evidenced by the developments around the social integration that recruitment software providers are continually developing. I expect these two environments will continue to merge in the future as industry needs demand it and as technology advances.

I’m still fairly old school in that I place more importance on genuine, personal interaction and face-to-face meetings than those connections and relationships that remain solely in the online domain. The nuances of personality, style and approach are more evident when experienced in person. I’m genuinely open to the possibility though that this might become an outdated stance, very quickly. Our social media relationships allow us to cover so much more ground so much quicker and can provide us with a much fuller picture of people’s likes and dislikes, career history and personal views and perspectives than a one hour interview or meeting can offer. However, like the recruitment industry influencer, Greg Savage, I don’t believe the agency recruitment industry is dying. Yes, technology will have a profound impact on the industry but I don’t see agency recruiters becoming redundant. Rather, we have to adapt and understand how this medium can give us a competitive advantage.

10 years ago the #hashtag didn’t exist. The iPhone was launched a decade ago this week. The next decade is sure to gift us many, many more game-changing technological and digital advancements. I’m a real advocate of the power of technology and social media for creating successful recruitment businesses and I’m excited to see how future advances will shape and affect the industry.

So, Happy Social Media Day 2017 everyone #SMDAY

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