Can Social Media Recruiting Replace the Executive Staffing Firm?
Can you use social media recruiting to replace your executive staffing firm? It’s tempting for some to think they can – imagine the cost savings! – but as in much of life, you get a result equal to your effort.
It’s obvious that social media platforms like LinkedIn give access to a wealth of job candidates. If all your firm needs is a terabyte of candidate profiles, LinkedIn might be a good solution. There are currently half a billion LinkedIn users, with more than 10 million active job posts.1 While your executive staffing firm uses LinkedIn and other social media sites as a part of its work, it is only one part of a sophisticated strategy that encompasses multiple tactics.
How A Staffing Firm Works
When Parker Blake begins an executive search, we don’t simply take a job description and look for people who match the requirements. Our executive recruiters do deep research on your company, your culture, your industry, and your competitors, as well as on the position itself. We use artificial intelligence-based capabilities, our extensive network, and the “secret sauce” of the strategies and techniques we’ve developed over years of successful searches.
Why should you hire an executive staffing firm instead of conducting your own social media search?
- Recruiters have healthy skepticism – social media profiles are self-created, so the executive recruiter must know how to determine if the profile is accurate and complete. Experienced recruiters see things in social media profiles that can easily escape the less experienced.
- Recruiters have access to tools, databases, and artificial intelligence resources, not to mention carefully honed strategies and techniques.
- Identifying candidates through social media is only the first step. Recruiters next screen and evaluate potential talent, weeding out the less-qualified, those who would not fit the culture, and those who would not likely be a long-term fit. Recruiters talk with references, and with contacts who understand the job, the industry, and the candidate.
- Networking beats social searching nearly every time. If you know someone who can vouch for a candidate’s qualifications, you’re far ahead in your placement.
- Some of the best hires are people who aren’t actively looking for a new position. Recruiters can find those passive candidates among the handraisers.
- Executive staffing experts are trusted by candidates to accurately interpret the open position and their potential fit, in contrast to employers who can seem too eager to find an employee.
When are social media platforms helpful to an employer in hiring?
- When the position is entry level or junior level.
- For smaller companies.
- For U.S.-only based small companies.
- In isolated circumstances.
Contact Our Team Today
Have questions about hiring an executive staffing firm? Click here to contact Parker Blake for a complimentary evaluation of your situation.
1http://fortune.com/2017/04/24/linkedin-users/