Social Recruiting

There's no simple prescription for recruiting Creatives, but there's one general guideline you can use: go social.

The big job boards like Monster and CareerBuilder are still in business and still provide a lot of opportunities for you to get your job requirements out there and search resumes for active job seekers who might be right for you. But, as a recent article in Business Week points out that one reason those sites are getting better is that they are having to improve to face the competition posed by social networking. Some social media let you get the word out faster, and to a more targeted population, than the big boards offer.

LinkedIn is a prime example. Already focused on professionals, the Business Week article points out that most users are currently employed, making them "passive job seekers." You can use your own networking on there to seek out potential hires, but LinkedIn offers recruiters some interesting package deals for searching through resumes and profiles and contacting likely prospects. For younger, less established workers, look to Facebook to provide you a presence. Companies can set up groups for their employees, which allows potential hires to talk with current job holders, and they can also set up company profiles that are specifically designed for recruiting. Even Twitter is coming into play...as people hear about job opportunities they have been known to tweet about it, putting the word out to their followers who can then resend it to all those following their feeds. If you're looking for millenials, who seem addicted to the "always on" perspective, social networking offers some particularly great opportunities for finding them and allowing them to find you.

For less experienced employees or freelance Creatives, don't forget Craigslist. Ideally, your ad should have a link back to your company website so you don't leave a potential recruit without any information other than the text in the ad. Also look at freelancer sites like eLance and SoloGig.com. Once again, these allow you to target the kinds of employees you're seeking better than the big boards do.

Yesterday's Wall Street Journal had a similar article that also discussed the use of the career pages on company websites. (subscription required). Successful recruiters are making their career pages more interactive, providing more information in a visually interesting way to grab a recruit's attention and keep it long enough to get some information out to them, enough info to make them want more. This can be used in conjunction with social ads...contact them through LinkedIn and pull them back to your page with video testimonials from other employees about how great it is to work with you, that sort of thing.

That last point is key: use multiple methods. Don't rely on just one. For too long recruiters had only the big job boards, which are still good, but which aren't enough when you're competing against other firms for that relatively small number of Creatives who have the specific talents you need. remember, too, that Creatives want to work for someone, well, creative, and they won't be impressed if you're still recruiting the way you did back in the '90s.