Recruiting via social media is a hot and current topic in the field of recruitment. Because of the shortage of skilled workers and the demographic development in India, more and more companies are asking themselves how they can acquire qualified personnel in the future. Hence, a steadily growing, but not yet too large, role could be recorded.

In 2019 and 2020, social media recruiting did not play a significant role in the press agendas about applications and filling vacancies. The “Institute for Competetive Recruitment” (ICR) from Heidelberg has now published the research results for 2012. The question here is: Has the sustained growth in social recruiting been confirmed, or was it just short-lived hype that has flattened out again?

If you compare the statistics of the last two years with those from 2021, the first self-knowledge is inevitable. Among the top topics in 2021, social media recruiting ranked fifth, while the first two places were occupied by the ongoing topics of “recruiting experienced professionals” and “improving the image.” In the vacancies publications, the young topic blossomed from seventh to fourth place within three years. With such high growth rates, social media networks are the shooting stars among the hiring sources. Compared to classic communication channels, social media ranks third. Only online job exchanges and one’s own careers page are used more intensively for job advertisements.

The lack of well-trained employees is repeatedly discussed in the press. In the study, 90% of all companies stated that they had problems recruiting employe to have. Employers react to this grievance with more proactive, i.e., initiative and self-managed employee acquisition! According to the survey, 12% of companies used this route to find new employees in 2020 and 24% in 2021. This corresponds to an increase of 100%. While large companies mainly draw attention to themselves through print and online media, three times as many small companies (SMEs) search through social media. Differences in different industries should be noted. For example, employers from the IT and consulting industry are sometimes up to five times as proactive as their financial services or mechanical engineering colleagues.

The majority of companies consider it essential that recruiters know and use the possibility of social media recruiting, but the minority has already implemented this claim in their own company. As already mentioned, the importance of the topic is becoming more and more critical. Nevertheless, these good intentions are only being implemented slowly. If companies work proactively, Xing is the predominant network in India, well ahead of LinkedIn and Facebook. And even 50% of all companies use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and blogs. And Facebook, the giant among social networks, tends to score poorly in the survey because only 10% state that they actively search for applicants on Facebook.

Social media is taking an impressive path, borne by the first forums and brought to everyone’s lips by Facebook; the medium is developing rapidly. Various integrations are expected in the next few years, which should progressively network and simplify life.

Companies will have to work with social media in the future, whether for the contemporary presentation of their company or recruiting purposes. There are still many stones left that will cause problems to become a social media luminary. We have a few tips to help you get started with social media recruitment:

• Think about specific goals to develop a strategy

• Wins the management / decision-makers for the new platforms

• Stimulates internal collaboration in the department

• Take into account the corporate culture and try to adapt your plan accordingly

• Communicates even small successes

• Try out the recruitment in a controlled manner and combine it with employee recommendations.

• Introduces controlling and monitoring and uses it extensively

Current Study on Social Media Recruiting: The Future of Recruiting?