“The technical people we are trying to recruit just aren’t on Facebook.” The Director of Corporate Communications then leaned back in his chair, folded his arms and looked at me smugly, implying that any idiot – especially me – should know this to be true. “We don’t need a corporate Facebook page.”
First, I’ve always loved how people in other functional disciplines often assert themselves as recruiting experts. It’s cute.
Second, the naivety of elder corporate statesmen (and women) who assume they know things is a huge problem.
Unfortunately, this exact conversation has played out similarly several times in my career as new, innovative recruiting platforms and technology enter the market. It’s no different this time around with the advent and rising popularity of social recruiting. What’s even more interesting is that often while requiring total control of social media sites and messaging, our MarComm buddies rarely are accountable for their position (or lack thereof) and its impact on talent acquisition and the employment brand. And to make matters worse, it’s often the senior executive of the function and his narrow perspective on the utility of social media in general that prohibits a company from moving its social strategy – including social recruiting – forward.
After all, “back in his day” he was a successful marketer “before the Internets.”
Head, meet wall. Lean back. Repeat.
Just look at the above infographic on job seeker behavior from Marvin Smith. Interesting numbers from both Facebook and LinkedIn. Still, no single social media platform is the answer. Facebook is but one of many available tools that shouldn’t be scoffed at or dismissed simply because someone in MarComm doesn’t see the value.
It’s just too important.
So, while your company is bickering internally about who owns what, asking you to build businesses cases and research “best practices,” other more nimble and agile organizations with innovative thinking, higher risk tolerances and a “market leader” mentality move in and leave you to play catch up.
This, of course, leaves one to wonder if those other companies are actually better places to work.
