It’s important for job seekers to understand how job search — including how employers source and hire candidates — has changed and continues to change. Jobvite‘s Social Recruiting Survey for 2012 polled more than 1,000 human resources and recruitment professionals and asked about their intentions regarding social recruiting activities. This is the fifth year of the survey, which illustrates trends and offers insights about hiring.
What can we learn from the survey?
Social recruiting has become an essential HR practice, with 92% of U.S. companies using social networks and media to find talent in 2012, up from 78% five years ago.
LinkedIn continues to be a dominant recruiting network, used by 93% of respondents (compared to 87% in 2011 and 78% in 2010). 89% of respondents have hired from LinkedIn.
Facebook and Twitter have seen major adoption growth in the past year.
- 2/3 of companies now recruit through Facebook. Facebook saw the biggest gain in usage, jumping 11 points from last year to 66% in 2012. Of those surveyed, 25% have hired through Facebook.
- More than half (54%) use Twitter to find new talent; 15% have hired through Twitter.
Employers are checking your social profiles
Jobvite also found that employers scrutinize social media activity, noting more than half of respondents (hiring side) would have a negative reaction to seeing a spelling or grammar mistake in a social profile.
Yes, employers are checking your online profiles (almost 75% check profiles, 48% always check, even if the candidate does not provide links. What do they think? Jobvite says, they like “professional organizations but frown on drinking and bad grammar.”
What do employers want to see (or not see)? These are some of the results the survey uncovered:
- 80% of respondents reacted positively to seeing memberships to professional organizations, while 2/3 like to see volunteering or donating to a nonprofit.
- Content that recruiters especially frown on includes references to using illegal drugs (78% negative) and posts of a sexual nature (67% negative).
- Profanity in posts and tweets garnered a 61% negative reaction, and almost half (47%) reacted negatively to posts about alcohol consumption.
- Worse than drinking, grammar or spelling mistakes on social profiles saw a 54% negative reaction.
- However, recruiters and hiring managers tend to be neutral in their reactions to political opinions (62% neutral) and religious posts (53% neutral).
Social Recruiting Adoption Reaches All-Time High
Jobvite notes, “Social recruiting has moved from a trend to a necessity, with 92% of employers using or planning to use social recruiting in 2012. No longer exclusive to LinkedIn, all social networks are now fair recruiting game.” Interestingly, the survey notes, “71% of HR and recruiting professionals consider themselves moderate to exceptional social recruiters.”
No surprise that employers like social recruiting because they see results. The survey data show:
- More than 7 of 10 employers have successfully hired a candidate through social media (73%). This is up from 63% in 2011 and 58% in 2010.
- Since implementing social recruiting, almost half (49%) received more candidates to choose from.
- More than 4 out of 10 (43%) say the quality of applicants has improved.
- 1/3 of respondents see more employee referrals, which tend to lead to the most valuable hires.
- 20% reported it takes less time to hire when using social recruiting.
Referrals, which have always been an important part of job search, continue to be key to social recruiting’s success. “The rise in social recruiting has allowed both candidates and employers an easier way to find the best match,†said Dan Finnigan, president and CEO of Jobvite. “We continue to see social recruiting gain popularity because it is more efficient than the days of sifting through a haystack of resumes. It also increases quality referral hires, which our own data on Jobvite proves are hired faster and last longer.â€
The survey shows:
Referrals are the highest-rated sources of new hires, and it’s far easier for employees to share jobs through social networks. Industry data shows people have an average of 150 social network contacts, so a company of 100 could have a social recruiting reach of 15,000 direct contacts, and 2.25 million second-degree connections. The Jobvite survey notes that roughly 2/3 (65%) of companies seek to increase employee participation in recruiting by offering referral bonuses; more than 1/3 offer rewards of more than $1,000.
Compare these results to the past five years of Jobvite Social Recruiting Surveys
2012: http://recruiting.jobvite.com/resources/social-recruiting-survey.php
2011: http://recruiting.jobvite.com/resources/social-recruiting-survey.php
2010: http://recruiting.jobvite.com/news/press-releases/pr/jobvite-social-recruiting-survey-2010.php
2009: http://recruiting.jobvite.com/news/press-releases/pr/jobvite-2009-social-recruitment-survey.php
2008: http://recruiting.jobvite.com/news/press-releases/pr/social-recruitment-survey-release.php
About Jobvite
Jobvite is the leading recruiting platform for the social web. Today’s fastest-growing companies use applicant tracking, recruiter CRM and social recruiting software solutions from Jobvite to target the right talent and build the best teams. Jobvite is a complete, modular Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform which can optimize the speed, cost-effectiveness and ease of recruiting for any company. For more information, visit www.jobvite.com.
 Image courtesy of Jobvite.