Social HR

What Is Social HR?

Social HR is the practice of using social media to perform HR functions. HR professionals may use social media channels, like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, to perform these functions. They may also use social tools that are developed within a company to organize HR initiatives.

Why Should Human Resources Use Social Media?

Overall, HR departments should adopt social HR into their strategies for two reasons:

• It’s a cost-effective way to engage with job candidates and fill new positions.

• HR professionals can easily engage with their current employees and encourage participation in company-wide events.

How Can HR Use Social Media?

HR professionals can use social media as a tool in nearly every HR function, whether recruiting new candidates or working with current employees.

Recruit New Employees

It’s much easier to build a company’s brand using social media. You can create branded pages and share messages with both your audience and potential candidates. This allows you to attract passive job candidates and improve your brand image with your followers.

Performing background checks on potential candidates is also easier with social media. On LinkedIn, for example, you can simply look at their previous jobs, read recommendations from their peers, and seek referrals from your mutual connections. 

Meanwhile, other social media platforms allow you to better understand an employee’s personality and whether they would be a good fit at your company.

Encourage Employee Participation

Posting something shareable on social media or creating a challenge to participate in are great ways to see more engagement from your employees. You may also ask a question on social media that anyone, including your employees, can respond to.

Boost Employee Morale

HR professionals can use social media platforms to help their employees feel connected with each other. This is especially useful for companies with many different departments or a large number of remote workers. 

For example, some companies choose to highlight a certain employee in a social media post. This shows the employee their contributions are valued, and this can encourage other employees to put their best foot forward.

What Are Some Benefits of Using Social Networks in the Hiring Process?

HR professionals who implement social media platforms into their hiring processes will likely experience the following benefits:

• Lower Recruitment Costs: Before, job recruiters had to pay money for ad space to alert potential candidates about their job openings. Social media recruitment cuts that cost significantly. Most social media accounts are free to set up, meaning recruiters can access their candidate pool for little to no money. And if they use LinkedIn’s premium subscription, recruiters can access even more detailed information on candidates for a modest monthly price.

• Shorter Hiring Times: HR professionals can interact directly with candidate profiles to learn more about those who applied in a shorter amount of time. They will also find it easier to maintain regular and consistent communication with leading candidates, helping them set up interviews in less time. 

• Larger Recruitment Pool: LinkedIn estimates 40 million people use their site to search for jobs every week. Meanwhile, 67 percent of job seekers use Facebook. With that in mind, recruiters have a massive pool of candidates to work with for all of their job openings.

• Better Candidates: A majority of job recruiters reported the candidates they hired through social media were of higher quality. This is partly because job recruiters are better able to match candidate profiles with their current needs. Additionally, job candidates who search for jobs on social media are likely more tech-savvy, a quality that is becoming a must in today’s job market.

Why Are Companies Showing an Increased Interest in Social Media for HR?

More companies are showing an increased interest in social HR because they recognize these platforms as a means to easily connect with employees and candidates. There are currently 231.47 million people using social media in the United States, meaning HR professionals can potentially access over 70% of the population through social HR.

Additionally, HR professionals have noticed how easy it is to use social media in all aspects of their job, especially when compared to older and outdated practices.