HireBetter Blog

Does Facebook really play a big role in a Hiring Manager Decision?

April 3rd, 2012 | by Wendi Baird | guest post, social media

Apr
03

Does Facebook play a role in the decision making process of Hiring Managers today? And should it?

According to an article written in 2010, 70% of recruiters and hiring managers had rejected an applicant because of something they’d seen on Facebook. Things such as “inappropriate” comments, “unsuitable” photos and videos, and “criticism” of employers, co-worker or clients.

But what else can Facebook reveal about a potential candidate? According to a recent study done by Northern Illinois University, Facebook can help reveal the Big Five personality traits – openness, extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, and neuroticism. For example, people who have lots of pictures and discussion about travel on their Facebook profile indicates that they are open to new things. While someone who has a large number of friends on Facebook is indicative of an extrovert.

However, Don Kluemper, one of the study’s authors, says that companies really shouldn’t use Facebook to screen applicants until more research has been done. He suggests that hiring managers continue to use personality tests which do a better job of predicting performance.

As mentioned in previous blogs, HireBetter uses behavioral interviews to provide a superior snapshot of a candidate’s personality.

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LinkedIn and Recruiting: How it is (and isn’t) useful

September 29th, 2011 | by Bradley Short | hiring, networking, social media

Sep
29

Do you use LinkedIn in your hiring process? If so, you’re not alone. Over 80% of companies used social media for hiring purposes in 2010, and LinkedIn is the network du jour for most of them. LinkedIn can be a great talent resource if used to its potential; here are a couple of things to keep in mind so you can get the most out of it.

Referrals: “Do you know someone who can…?”

As we’ve stated before, referrals are still a top source of talent. LinkedIn is a collection of referrals waiting to happen. Ask your LinkedIn network if they can recommend anyone for a certain position. LinkedIn is particularly helpful for this because your contacts can dig much deeper into their rolodex to give referrals. They don’t have to remember every detail about a good worker to recommend them. They can easily index their contacts and then pass them along to you.

But this is also a double-edged sword. A LinkedIn connection doesn’t necessarily represent a real, deep relationship. You’ll likely have to spend a little more time talking with the referrer on these, but don’t let that scare you away. If someone who you trust willing to put their faith in someone they refer, then you’re probably in pretty good shape.

Direct applicants and “Apply with LinkedIn”

The new “Apply with LinkedIn” button can give you lots of direct applicants in a format that is very easy to read. The standardized pseudo-resume style that LinkedIn applications provide makes applications very easy to quickly sort through. And even if you received a resume through some other means, you can cross reference that with their LinkedIn profile and compare candidates with one another very easily.

But in our experience, referrals and sourced candidates are much more likely to be the ones you end up hiring. So though this feature makes direct applications easy to digest, remember that your best employees will usually come from elsewhere.

It’s no Google

Though there are ways to directly search for profiles on LinkedIn, unless you pay them very high fees (up to $500/month!), their search is relatively useless if you don’t know the name of the person you want to find. Directly doing broad talent research isn’t easy for most people to do, so you might want to leave that to the pros.

The social media recruiting tool

Like any other piece of technology, LinkedIn is a tool. Use it well and it can make your life much easier, but remember its limitations. How has LinkedIn changed recruitment for you?

Image used under Creative Commons from shekharsahu.

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Hiring then and now: Craigslist is not a hiring strategy

August 18th, 2011 | by Bradley Short | hiring, human resources, networking, recruiting, referrals, social media, talent

Aug
18

Raise your hand if the Internet hasn’t changed the way you do business. Any hands in the air? Exactly. The Internet, and lately the social web, has fundamentally altered the way we act as people and as companies. The Internet’s role in the hiring process is no different. But like any technology, the trick is using it as a tool instead of a crutch. So how do we apply lessons from the past to today’s Internet-enabled world?

Timeless Advice: Still Go with who you know

New tools don’t necessarily mean new strategies. Remember, most hires still come from referrals. That’s right, about one in three of your final candidates will come from inside your network, and the referral will get the hire twice as often as the other two. The difference is, the Internet and social media have expanded the size of our networks drastically.

No matter how good your memory may be, your computer can keep up with more contacts than you can on your own. And with tools like LinkedIn (which we’ll go into more detail about in a later post), you can easily see your contacts and their qualifications. You can ask for referrals from employees, too. Let the people you already know and trust help you recruit the best fit for your company.

Watch out for Monsters

Just because job boards and career sites deliver resumes, that doesn’t mean you should limit your search to them. Though Monster.com or Craigslist can and sometimes do give you good candidates, you shouldn’t rely solely on them (especially for higher-level roles). Using it as a pillar of your search is fine, but it can’t be your whole strategy. Also, be ready to be flooded with dozens, or even hundreds of resumes from applicants who are completely unqualified to do anything for your company other than waste your time.

A good rule to go by: if it’s a role you’d feel comfortable posting on a bulletin board in a business school or a career fair, then the online approach might be enough. But if you are looking to hire anyone other than a low level employee or an intern, you’ll need to put more thought into your search (or hire an expert!).

The Internet helps, but hiring is no easy task

Online tools can be very helpful to hiring managers. But hiring isn’t an easy job, and the Internet won’t change that. While the Web isn’t going to make your hiring process easier, it will make it better! At the end of the day, only true dedication and strategy will allow you to hire better.

Image used under Creative Commons from quinn.anya.

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My 2009 Predictions for Social Media & Recruiting

January 29th, 2009 | by Jonathan Davis | networking, recruiting, social media

Jan
29

There are so many recent tools that people want to get us to use these days that I’ve decided to publish my list of predictions for 2009 and Social Networking.

1. Yes, Social Networking is here to stay. Not a shocker of a first prediction but when even my semi-retired 62 year old Uncle has a Facebook page for his Barbershop Quartet, it bodes well for more and more Internet users over the age of 40 embracing social tools and utilizing them for promoting themselves on the web to further their careers.

2. It doesn’t take enough money to build social applications for there to be any competitive advantage for newcomers other than a few lines of code. As a direct result, the biggest networks have or will raise enough investment money to give them time to find workable revenue models. The tiny social networks will find their niches and targeted advertising revenue will follow. It’s the medium-sized services, the latecomers to the Facebook era, that are going to fall by the wayside, being snapped up on the cheap by acquirors or simply going out of business.

3. Social Tools & Networks will have to find a way to earn money. There wasn’t really any significant money (let alone profit) earned by the biggest players in 2008. If these companies are focusing on Recruiting as an industry where they want to make in-roads they’re in for a rough year. While American Workforce has weathered storm comfortably, many of our competitors have made significant cut-backs. Corporations are also slashing their internal recruiting budgets and headcount. It’s not a good time to be selling in the recruiting space and we’ll see virtually all of the companies who tried to get our attention in 08 disappear in 09.

4. The Web 1.0 companies that have a loyal following will make the leap into the next evolution. Whether or not they’re successful will take a while to manifest itself but I expect to see the likes of Monster.com and others making significant changes that allow their users to do a better job of passive seeking. In fact, Monster just announced some significant changes that point them in this direction (I swear, I’ve had this blog post in the works for 3 weeks). According to them, nearly 90% of the consumer-side interface has gotten revamped.

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Social Media: Can it help you land a job?

December 10th, 2008 | by Jonathan Davis | interviewing, networking, social media

Dec
10

In recent weeks we’ve seen the sheer number of resumes that arrive on a daily basis increase exponentially. Because the job market has continued to soften and analysts are predicting a potential increase in the Unemployment Rate to possibly as high as 9%, more and more job seekers are asking us, “What can I do to improve my chances of landing a new job?”

Tim Hayden, the Founder and CEO of GamePlan Marketing is both an advisor to American Workforce as well as a close friend. While at dinner with him last night we devoted a significant amount of the conversation to the topic of Social Media and Social Networking. There are so many people who are marketing themselves as “social media experts” and virtually all of them agree that they can’t agree on anything.

One aspect of social networking has become abundantly clear in the past months and years: it might help your ability to land that job but it can definitely destroy your chances if you’re not paying attention to your online reputation.

Jeremy Toeman wrote a tremendous Blog Entry a couple of weeks ago that I don’t think I could have written any better. Some snippets for those who want a short version:

SMART MOVES:
*Comment (thoughtfully – don’t just suck up) on a recent blog post. No need to leave a comment on all the blog posts, but one or two is a good move.
*Send a Tweet to the company’s twitter account (or individual’s) before/after your interview. There’s no “rule” to the content, but a cleverly handled message can be impactful.

DUMB MOVES:
*Don’t “friend” someone. It’s perfectly fine to add anyone you meet as a LinkedIn contact, but unless you know, for sure, that someone treats Facebook “friends” as a list of anyone/everyone they’ve ever encountered, don’t cross this potentially bad line.
*If you felt the guy/gal you interviewed with was “a total tool”, that’s just fine, and you can tell your buddies in person and out loud, as opposed to in writing. Emails have a way of getting forwarded.

Also, based on our experiences at American Workforce, here are a couple of other added bonus items you can look into:

1. Follow influential people who are tweeting about the industry that you’re in. Being able to carry on conversations about lots of topics because you’re well-rounded isn’t a bad thing while job hunting. Some of the people I follow: Nan Palmero (a Blackberry Power User and marketing junkie), Kristen Doyle (a freelance writer but more importantly a woman with a cult-like following of Moms around the country) and Peter Shankman (the creator of Help a Reporter Out-HARO).

2. Avoid wasting the time of others who show you the respect of “following you around”. There’s nothing worse than having someone who links their Twitter account to their Facebook account and chooses to share a little too much. You likely know examples of these people – the ones who tell you that they’re having coffee, and now they’re relaxing, and now they’re thinking about what to eat for lunch, etc.

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HireBetter Blog

Does Facebook really play a big role in a Hiring Manager Decision?

LinkedIn and Recruiting: How it is (and isn’t) useful

Hiring then and now: Craigslist is not a hiring strategy

My 2009 Predictions for Social Media & Recruiting

Social Media: Can it help you land a job?

Generation Y: The perspective of a Y’er

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