This past week I gave the keynote address at a recruiting event in Phoenix. The room was filled with recruiters who had come to share their perspectives on using social media and networking for recruiting. I was there to talk about how to take advantage of new social media tools like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs for the benefit of corporate recruiting.
The truth is, I thought the conference may be a waste of my time. I have spent most of the last 10 years around recruiting departments who have been searching for high-tech, highly-paid talent. When it is tough to find someone with a particular skill set (say “advanced audio codec engineering”) you are willing to invest a lot of money to connect and form relationships with people who may lead you to great hires. Using social media and social networking to help in my recruiting efforts was sort of a no-brainer: if that is where the talent is, that is where you go.
But the room in Phoenix wasn’t filled with high-tech recruiters. It was filled with people who hire for highly concentrated industries like: hospitality, construction, banking, call centers, health care and food services. These were a group of recruiting professionals focused on hiring fast food cooks, store managers, bank tellers, site foremen, hotel clerks, nurses and phone operators. Given that unemployment is so high, I figured that anyone who recruited for these industries must simply be posting jobs and sitting back to review resumes. Boy, was I wrong.
It turns out companies are finally starting to get the message: even in the midst of economic calamity great people matter, no matter the job. I heard the head of recruiting for KFC talk about how they use social media to attract great restaurant and shift managers. Another recruitment leader from Sport Chalet spoke about using social media to connect floor associates with potential buyers and future associates. And a local Phoenix hospital showed how they used social media to attract not just nurses and doctors, but also orderlies and shift janitorial.
A lot of my snooty “high tech” myths about the value of talent were destroyed in one short afternoon. But more importantly, I learned that regardless of how much I agree with fellow Clearview Contributor John Sumser and other experts, the reality is that all sorts of recruiters are now hanging out in places like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. Sure, they are still posting jobs on the big job boards and on their websites. But recruiters of all types are starting to really pay attention to who catches their eye on social networking sites. They are really worth your investment of time and attention.
Next week I will outline some of the social media tips I heard from recruiters to help you in your job search.
