A whole lot of employee referrals should be the answer, but probably isn’t just yet.
One of the always very readable Dr Sullivan’s top ten predictions for 2012 is an increase in referrals and particularly those via social media. But why wait until next year? Late November this year saw the publishing of Google research suggesting there are, at most, just 3.74 degrees of separation between any one Facebook user and another. Regardless of age, gender, nationality or location. Or, put another way, “When considering another person in the world, a friend of your friend knows a friend of their friend.”
The degree of human interconnectivity is staggering, potentially frightening and not without potential.
Given the level of direct and indirect contact that any organisation’s employee base will have with vast tranches of humanity, this appears to be a resourcing channel whose potential is only just being hinted at. This has massive implications, particularly for cultures, such as the UK, where employee referrals should have much more take up than is generally the case.
For me, there are two challenges to such an obvious emerging solution. The first is individual space. Four or five years ago, many people felt that their mobile was their own personal domain and not one to be intruded upon for recruitment purposes. The advent however of the smart phone and the mobile alignment of many organisations’ careers site for mobile purposes means that recruitment via a mobile no longer feels intrusive. It may be, right now, that personal social networking sites (as opposed to the LinkedIns of this world) are viewed as exactly that and not the place for resourcing initiatives – the amount of organisations, however, with a recruitment presence on Facebook suggests this is less and less the case.
However, probably the most pressing challenge to an organisation’s ability to make use of its employees and their social networking presence is that of their employer brand. From an internal perspective, if employees lack trust, engagement and advocacy, then they are unlikely to espouse the virtues of their organisation with much enthusiasm.
At the same time, if an organisation’s employer brand lacks external aspiration and attractiveness, then even the best efforts of its employee base in the social networking space are likely to prove ineffective.
Harnessing an engaged workforce with the potential of social networking should present a massive opportunity for organisations. But only those organisations who are investing in their employer brand – with both internal and external audiences – are likely to see the return they seek.
Getting to the heart of your employee mindset 