Why is it Important to Partner with a Socially Engaged Agency?

A socially engaged agency is one which has a very active presence on social media platforms, for instance Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter, as well as user forums and other discussion sites. By having a strong social presence on these platforms, a consulting agency working on your behalf will be aware of all discussion about your company, and can even participate in some of those discussions to improve your brand recognition and your perception among the user community. 

Statistics tell us that when companies engage with their customers on social media, those customers generally spend between 20% and 40% more money with the company, so the benefits should be obvious. When working with an independent recruiting agency, you will undoubtedly enjoy a significant number of benefits that you really just could not achieve on your own as a company. Recruiters understand how to attract the best candidates for jobs, and since locating talent is rarely a core capability of any company, it’s better to leave that to the professionals. 

You’ll also find that it costs less much in the long run, to engage the services of an independent recruiter than it would conduct a talent search all on your own, and that search will be conducted much more quickly than you could do it yourself. The bottom line is, that an independent recruitment consultant will always produce better results than your company could on its own, and almost always at a reduced cost.

Why social engagement is key to recruitment

One of the most important lessons that a recruiter must learn is to see things from the perspective of candidates and to be able to relate to them the benefits of working for a specific company. Delivering a positive experience to the candidate is just as important as satisfying the needs of the company seeking talent for an open position. Even if the candidate may not be quite right for the present position, there’s a fair chance that the same individual might be a great fit somewhere down the line for another company.

These are the kinds of points which can be addressed when a recruiting company is socially engaged, and actually takes the time to understand the candidate they’re working with. Another part of being socially engaged is to fully communicate with employees and management of the company using the recruiting services. This will inform them better about the potential for candidates with different kinds of work experience, and just what they can bring to the table. This can help build a more diverse, inclusive kind of workplace that will greatly benefit the company in the long run.

How social engagement is changing recruiting 

At least 25% of all candidates seeking jobs now use social media to identify their next career opportunities and to promote themselves as viable employees. This is a remarkable example of how recruiting has drastically changed over the past 10 years or so. With competition for top candidates becoming more and more intense, it has become necessary for companies to engage the services of recruitment consultants who have social recruiting strategies in their arsenal. 

The use of social media has become so prevalent in recruiting top-notch talent, that it’s estimated nine out of every ten brands make some kind of use of social media to attract and engage with candidates. This statistic includes both the efforts of companies themselves and recruitment consultants operating on their behalf. 

In fact, social recruiting has become so dominant, that it is no longer considered a supplement to traditional recruiting, but it has instead virtually replaced traditional recruiting as the default method for attracting talent. Recruiting agencies are well aware of the fact that using social media helps them narrow down the candidate pool much more quickly, to find qualified candidates. 

When an appropriate brand message is conveyed to the social platforms being used, along with an appealing picture of a company’s culture, recruitment results tend to be extremely successful. A whopping 59% of all recruiters rated candidates found on social media as being high-quality candidates, and from the opposite side, 21% of candidates polled say that they were able to find a dream job by promoting themselves through social media.

Compelling stats on social media and recruitment 

To point up the powerful connection between social media and recruitment of good candidates, consider the following amazing statistics. Surveys have shown that at least 84% of all organizations seeking candidates to fill positions use social media and that another 9% are planning to start using them. 

One of the reasons for this widespread adoption of social media is that 73% of all those people in the 18 to 34 age group came upon their most recent jobs by using one of the social media platforms. Given the fact that current predictions tell us that the average person will spend approximately five years of their life on social media, it just makes good sense to seek out the best candidates on these platforms. 

On top of this, 58% of all online users make use of social media platforms to follow information about a brand they’re interested in. Companies which can successfully initiate word-of-mouth buzz about their culture have a great chance of reaching qualified candidates since 92% of all people place the greatest faith in recommendations they receive from family and friends, and much of that information comes via social media. 

Lastly, it is known that in many cases the best candidates are those who are not actively seeking a new position, and more than 82% of all organizations currently use social media to track down these kinds of passive candidates.

Reasons you should be using social media recruiting

To wrap things up, here are some of the strongest reasons for making good use of social media for recruiting purposes. First of all, there is visibility to the largest possible pool of candidates, as well as the greatest range of diversity among those candidates. It’s also a very cost-effective way of tracking down high-quality candidates and filtering out those of lesser interest. 

Using social media is also a great way to promote your brand recognition, and for promoting the benefits of working for your company. Social media can also serve as a talent pool for future positions which may need to be filled, and they can reduce the time necessary to find and interview good candidates. 

In addition to targeting a specific segment of social media users which might be suitable as candidates, the information gained from current social media recruiting efforts can be used to analyze results, and come up with best practices for the future.

Conclusion

Anyone wondering where to start looking for a socially-engaged recruiting company should look no further than The Aicila Group. For the past two years running, The Aicila Group has won awards from LinkedIn for being the Most Socially Engaged company among all those registered – in 2017, The Aicila Group was ranked # 5 for this award in all the Asia Pacific region. In 2018, improvement and shift to the #2 spot. 

That’s quite an achievement in this day and age, and the fact that it’s a multi-year award shows that The Aicila Group is more than just a flash in the pan and that they’re truly committed to social engagement to bring about results. Contact The Aicila Group today, to accelerate your company’s recruiting process, and to achieve the kind of results you’ve been hoping for.

To learn more about The Aicila Group and what we can do for your business, please click here www.aicila.com

Alicia Keenan is the Managing Director at The Aicila Group – a globally active and highly specialised animal health/nutrition and animal production recruitment and consulting company with HQ in Australia.

Connect with Alicia on LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter.

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