Sunday June 27th, 2010
Why isn't there more hard data about social media for recruiting?

From 'anecdotal' to 'fact-based'

The biggest challenge social media for recruiting (and leveraging employees' social media channels for recruiting) is simply lack of hard data.

Sure, everyone's got an anecdote or two ("I found Bob on LinkedIn last year, and he's turned out to be our best new hire in ages!"), and we've got lots of information on the demographics of social media.

But when it comes to drawing a straight line from 'time spent on social media for recruiting' to 'quantitative results' (time-to-hire, cost per hire, quality of hire, web traffic, application volume, etc.)...well, the data just isn't out there.

This is for two reasons:

1. The mainstreaming of social media is relatively recent
   Most organizations have only been using social media for recruiting in any systematic way for the past couple of years.  The job market has changed so much during that time that it's been difficult to establish benchmarks.
2. The results haven't been as spectacular as the evangelists said they'd be
   For the past 3 years, social media for recruiting early adopters have been saying that social media would 'transform' the recruiting function.  And it is, and it will - just not, perhaps, quite as quickly and dramatically as we thought.  
   
   (It's sort of like mobile software applications:  In 2001, early-adopter types were saying that mobile applications would transform communications in the next 2 years; the transformation did indeed happen - it just took 7 years instead of 2.)
   
   Until the results look better, no one wants to say too much, lest their organization gets the wrong idea and pulls the plug on social media for recruiting initiatives before they've had a chance to succeed.

Send me your social media for recruiting results.
We'll give you a great case study. 

I'm pretty sure some of you have some metrics around social media for recruiting in your organization (or for you personally as a recruiter).

By themselves, they may not be too dramatic.  If I combine them with others' metrics in a blog post, however, they'll at least start to create a picture of the real results of social media for recruiting.  

Which may prove handy, the next time you walk into a boardroom and have to sell a comprehensive social-media-for-recruiting strategy to the larger organization.

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About the Authors

Paul Dodd
Co-founder and President
Head2Head Canada

Paul has one simple goal: To help companies hire great people - and get the most out of every recruiting dollar they spend. That's why he's recognized as one of the best recruitment-industry thinkers in Canada.

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