Social Media Channels Popular, but Effective?

It’s no secret that recruiter usage of the most popular social media channels – LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter – continues to climb. In fact, new Roundtable data confirms that 78% of recruiters have increased their usage of social media over the last year. What we find fascinating is that despite the widespread usage, a full 40% of recruiters have not seen a performance boost from using these channels. So, if we’re using social media more, where is the impact we were promised?

Two broader trends may shed light on this:

1) The channels themselves have yet to reach maturity: Of the eight channels we asked recruiters to consider, only LinkedIn was rated as more effective in 2010 than it was in 2009. Less than 25% of recruiters rate the other most prominent channels – including Facebook, Twitter, and MySpace – as effective. That includes activities across sourcing, conversion, and branding.

2) Organizations haven’t figured out how to quantify the impact of these social media channels: When we ask recruiters to tell us if their organization measures the ROI of social media channels, only a quarter of respondents agree – a full third strongly disagree. To underscore this trend, only 44% of organizations are even tracking candidate utilization at this point.

To help nudge your organization’s Web 2.0 and social media strategy in the right direction, visit the Web 2.0 Technologies for Recruiting topic center. You can also contribute and share your social media experience by taking the Social Networking Survey through the end of March (Roundtable members only for both links).

Candidate Shortlist Very Important in Europe

2009 was a unique year for recruiting globally, but European organizations had their own set of challenges.

Across 2009, the Roundtable launched an exclusive European cohort of the Recruiting Effectiveness Dashboard (RED) to help our members hiring in Europe better understand the local recruiting climate.

What we found is intriguing. While European hiring managers are still rating their new hire performance below the global benchmark, the rating has improved steadily over the last year and half. This increase is occurring as the RED global benchmark has remained pretty much flat.

Why is new hire performance in Europe rising?

European hiring managers are now more frequently reporting that they were interviewing ‘A-level’ candidate shortlists. European hiring managers who interviewed an ‘A-level’ candidate shortlist observed 20% higher new hire performance than their peers who interviewed a ‘C-level’ shortlist observed. This reinforces, particularly for our European colleagues, the importance of putting together high-quality shortlists and how recruiting functions can help influence quality past the point of hire.

For resources to track, trend, and benchmark your critical recruiting metrics, visit the Recruiting Effectiveness Dashboard (RED). To learn more about European recruiting trends, Roundtable members can view the webinar replay, Findings from 2009 RED European Cohort .

Candidate Rules of Engagement: Breaking Through the Noise

The competition for jobs has swelled. As we reported a few weeks ago, the number of applications recruiters receive for a given position has more than doubled since 2007 (average of 70 in 2007 vs. 162 in 2009). Further, a large portion of these applicants are unqualified. In a recent RR survey of more than 400 recruiting professionals, over half reported 15% or less of the applications they recently received even meet basic qualifications.

How can candidates make recruiters lives easier and increase their chances of getting noticed? Below are recruiting professionals’ recommendations for candidates.

• Focus on your resume/CV first and foremost. Over 61% of recruiters say a really good cover letter does not matter.
• Only apply for positions where you meet most of the qualifications.
• Tailor your resume/CV to the job.
• During interviews, be very specific in examples of your previous experience.

Check out all the results of the Recruiting Roundtable’s Candidate Rules of Engagement Survey.