Question

Using social media to recruit for job openings may disproportionately tap into younger applicants . Older workers could be unintentionally precluded from the applicant pool to the extent they are less present and active on social networking sites . Why would this be a problem ? What would you recommend to eliminate or reduce this problem ?

Answer 1

It is true that the social media is for the youngsters and using social media to recruit people is a new concept. We cannot include LinkedIn as a social media channel anymore because it is a professional networking platform for professionals and it is one of the best places to find the right people for a job. There are both young and old people who are active on LinkedIn. The companies are also trying to make use of Facebook and Twitter to hire candidates and the problem lies here. These two platforms are mostly used by the youngsters and the company cannot potentially hire the senior candidates on these two platforms. Not all jobs can be carried out by youngsters and the companies need the expertise of senior candidates. The senior candidates can add more value to the company than youngsters. They have the knowledge and expertise to run the business better. So the recruiters will miss them on the social media channels and this will create a gap in the recruitment approach. To solve this problem the company can segment the required candidates based on the age group and the required experience. They can look for entry level to associate level employees on the social media channels and then look for senior candidates with good experience on LinkedIn and other professional job search platforms. The other way to solve this problem would be to use the same campaign and strategy for both the channels at the same time. The company will get entry-level professionals and the senior level professionals from both social media channels and the professional networking platforms. The HR department should have a clear picture in their mind of the person they want to hire and that will tell them where to find that right candidate. But just relying on social media to hire will always create a gap and will be a barrier to identify the right talent and hire them.