3 Social Recruiting Predictions That Will Shake Up Your 2015 Hiring

The beginning of the year is a time full of hope, good and bad resolutions, and a touch of magic: In January, the top HR minds dust off the crystal ball, read between the lines of industry data and human capital trends, and attempt to predict our future.

In this post we test our own clairvoyance and list the top 3 social recruiting predictions we think will impact hiring this year.

1. Social Recruiting Prediction #1: HR Pros who manage social recruiting will further define the emergence of the HR-Marketer Hybrid.

   A defined content strategy will prove vital to differentiating employer brand.

These days HR is full of “good problems to have.” Economic recovery and growth are among the top reasons why recruiting talent has gotten a lot harder in just the past several months, and why we just wrapped a record holiday hiring season.
Our return to pre-recession unemployment levels last year increased the supply of jobs, and as employees gained more choices for employment, employee turnover rose. Many in HR have observed the power shift from employer to employee, power which has only grown stronger thanks to the dawn of social media and employer review sites.
Josh Bersin of Bersin by Deloitte writes:

“Employers, once in a position of power, are no longer in control, thanks to tremendous transparency in the job market that is driven by dozens of online job networks. And if your company is not a great place to work, people find out fast…Today, the concepts of “employment brand” and “employee engagement” have merged: Employees communicate your brand externally every day, whether you like it or not.”

As competition for talent stiffens, the way in which employers use social media will become more competitive, and thus more targeted and defined. Candidates will expect to see more than a job description distributed through your social channel, and will pay closer attention to the way you engage with potential talent, as well as the content you choose to deliver to stand out from the crowd of employers. Social recruiters will continue to push their marketing skills to new heights, bringing 2015 ever closer to the advent of a marketing-savvy HR pro—the HR-Marketer Hybrid.

1. Social Recruiting Prediction #2: As mobile tech innovation and adoption heat up in HR and recruitment, social recruiting will naturally become more integral to recruitment and employer brand marketing.

As the balance of power tips towards the passively-searching employee and actively-searching job candidate, and the use of mobile devices continues to further surpass that of desktops, more employers will invest and innovate to reach candidates on mobile.
The Business Intelligence Report released last September notes social is now the top internet activity, and, “60% or so of social media time is spent not on desktop computers but on smartphones and tablets.”
Wise employer brands will focus on the mobile delivery of jobs and branded content, and social recruiting will be inherently tied to this rising trend as the majority of mobile device owners use their phone or tablet everyday to access social sites.
According to ExactTarget’s 2014 Mobile Behavior Report:

“Using smartphones and tablets to peruse social networking sites is common; 75% of consumers do this at least once a day on their phones, and 64% of tablet owners use a tablet to access social media at least once a day.”
Lastly, Dr. John Sullivan wrote in ERE.:
“The mobile platform should be the primary mechanism for communicating with prospects/candidates, spreading your employer brand messages, to view recruiting and job description videos, and to push relevant open jobs to applicant communities.”

1. Social Recruiting Prediction #3: More companies will adopt and depend on social recruiting due to the competitive hiring environment. Companies will deepen their reliance on HR Tech for big data and automation tools to help win quality talent at less cost.

Perhaps the most perennial prediction of them all is the increased adoption and dependence on technology. SHRM, TLNT, and ERE all share this similar vision, and we can expect to see this prediction read in the tea leaves of years-to-come.
But let’s face it, HR is an industry plagued by the necessity of paper trails—documenting applications, performance reviews, etc. from the application to offboarding. To stay ahead of the competition, HR pros need constant tech innovation to make these processes more accurate and efficient so they can focus on the real challenge: acquiring and retaining top talent in an increasingly competitive hiring climate.
Today, social recruiting remains an area of HR innovation where employers can still gain competitive branding advantages just by adopting it faster than other employers in their industry or locale. We’ve seen this happen time and time again. And we expect to see this happen more and more this year.

By Tallulah David