Matt Duren did a great presentation for a small group I facilitate - The Staffing Alliance of Maryland Employers (Project SAME). The topic was “How to Build a Social Recruiting Strategy on a Budget.” Matt understands how to work with a budget. He works for a big, well-known, well-run, cost-conscious company (see his LinkedIn profile if you want to know which one). Matt and his colleagues have done some great things.
What really impressed me about their social recruiting strategy was how authentic they were. They started the entire initiative by looking at their employment brand – asking “who are we to our employees?” They did not take the bland “we care about people” pablum that is locked securely inside picture frames on every office wall. They did not even use their well known consumer brand. Instead they really looked at what makes them attractive to their current and future employees. They pulled together a cross-disciplinary team of people and distilled down dozens of factors into a handful that really mattered – they looked hard at what promise they could keep to their candidates. Then they worked really dligently to convey that information as accurately as possible using social media. Yes, they used some very interesting tools, yes they are way ahead of other employers, and of course after Matt finished his (excellent) presentation everyone was asking questions like:
- “How many people did you end up hiring as a result of the initiative?”
- “What was your return on the investment in social recruiting?”
- “What did your CEO have to say about it?”
But what was most interesting was not the metrics or the ROI. What was really interesting was what he said the senior executives cared about:
- Did we attract and hire the very best people we could?
- Did people join the company for the right reasons?
- Did the new employees get what they expected when they arrived?
Authenticity. Telling the right story – keeping promises – that’s the heart and soul of social media recruiting. If you don’t get that part right, nothing else you do matters.
