Smart recruiting through social networks

Online social networks are a great way to recruit the "best and brightest" and employers only ignore them at their peril, experts say.

"To portray your company as worthy of having top talent, it's almost necessary to use those tools in some fashion," according to Kevin Restivo, senior research analyst at Toronto-based IDC Canada.

His view is echoed by another Canadian analyst.

Employers who fail to use social networking sites in recruiting initiatives miss out on an opportunity to target a specific demographic, according to Jennifer Pierrier-Knox, senior research analyst at Info-Tech Research Group in London, Ont.

She said new hires looking for work turn to the Internet first. "Nobody looks in the local newspaper anymore. Everybody goes online."

But other experts note that Web 2.0 sites are wide and varied, and your recruiting needs should determine which ones you focus on.

For instance, from an IT perspective, MySpace may not be the ideal location to look for new hires, as its audience is very young, said Lily Mok, research vice-president of the CIO workforce management group at Stamford Conn.-based analyst firm, Gartner Inc.

She said some companies use Second Life, but Facebook and LinkedIn are more popular.

Rather than passively sit back and wait for a bunch of résumés -- that may be totally irrelevant -- to come in, employers can use social networking sites to target who they want to apply for a role, Perrier-Knox suggested.

And from a recruiting standpoint, Web 2.0 sites offer other benefits.

For instance, these sites are very popular among younger prospective employees, Restivo noted.

And if recruiters seek recent or future graduates, they're likely to fine good candidates -- especially if hiring in the IT space, said Perrier-Knox.

More than 70 per cent of undergraduate students and IT pros in North America maintain a social networking profile, the Info-Tech analyst noted.

One big reason they do that, she said, is to track potential job opportunities and extend their professional network.

"It has to be a targeted effort"

She said social networking sites have taken a common recruiting practice and brought it to the Internet.

"Most people, at the end of the day, are hired through a referral -- a friend of a friend of a friend," said Perrier-Knox. "This is the basic structure behind social networking sites -- the trusted one-to-one-to-one relationship."

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