Innovative Methods for Sourcing Employees & Background Check
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Published @
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Sixth International Conference on Challenges in Human Resource Management
Organised by Desh bhagat institute , gobindgarh, punjab
Authors:
Mr. Nishant C. Mehta Mr. Alex Daniel
[DST, BBA, MBA] [MBA, Msc (UK)]
Asst. Professor, Asst. Professor,
Christ Institute of Management Christ Institute of Management
Email :nishantcmehta@gmail.com alex.daniel81@gmail.com
Cell: +91 96625 19612 Cell: +91 96625 19613
Address: Address:
“Shree Siddheshvari”, “Anjali”,
Laxmanzula Street, Street No 14,
Dr. Yagnic Road, Sau. Kala Kendra Society,
Rajkot. Gujarat Rajkot. Gujarat
Innovative Methods for Sourcing Employees & Background Check :
Introduction:
The idea to suggest innovative methods for sourcing employees & check their background has come from series of brain storming sessions with some of the MDs and CEOs different industries over a period of time. Rather than using traditional sources for selecting a candidate for the particular job we have tried to suggest some methods which could be very useful, cost effective and time saving. Many companies are faced with a problem of authenticating the background check while recruiting candidates. References provided on a resume and even the calls made to known connections do not always deliver the clear picture that a recruiter is looking for.
With reference to the strategic human resource decision making it is very important that whatever efforts in terms of cost & time made to recruit an employee should be lasting for a long period. With our research we would try to suggest some innovative methods to source a suitable candidate for the job and we have also tried to suggest methods to check the background of the potential employee. These methods or suggestions are most worthwhile looking for a suitable candidate at the middle and/or senior management. There are different dimensions focused for using this tools to provide innovative ways to source an employee.
How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool
There are millions of people on social media websites like LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. Many companies are using social media to target candidates. Here's how to use social media as a way to find your next best candidate for your organization.
Need of a Recruiter:
As a recruiter you want to be where the most qualified, talented, and largest pools of applicants are. Human resources can leverage social media to tap in to potential recruits. This type of head hunting is called social recruiting. It's about engaging with users and using social media tools to source and recruit talent.
LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have over 800 million combined users. That equals a lot of potential talent for your company. But how do you find the right person for the job you have available using social media?
Understanding Each Social/ Professional Network:
By now you would be familiar with LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. But just in case you are not, here is a quick overview.
"LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals," states the company's website. That is the corporate way of saying they are a giant jobs board and you can connect to other professionals. There are over 161 million professionals on LinkedIn as on 31st March 2012 with two members being added every second.[1]
Facebook is the largest of the social networking sites with over 400 million users. Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study, and live around them. It is intended to connect friends, family, and business associates. The model has expanded to include connections to organizations, businesses, and interests -- not just individual people.
Twitter is a micro blogging social networking service. Messages, better known as tweets, are no more than 140 characters. According to their website, "Twitter is a simple tool that helps connect businesses more meaningfully with the right audience at the right time."
Compared to the above names Xing is a more recent entrant and has a much smaller user base. But this website is aimed at business professionals with the intention of tapping into their personal resources of connections to find jobs or even employees. So now that you know what the major social media sites are, which one should you use and how do you use it?
How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool: Using LinkedIn
The most obvious ways to use LinkedIn are to post jobs you have available and search for candidates. It costs 1700 INR to post a job for 30 days. Or you can buy job credits and pay less per job posting if you buy more credits. You can also sign up for LinkedIn Talent Advantage. It is an exclusive suite of tools for recruiters. But if you don't have the budget to pay for job postings or join the Talent Advantage you can still tap in to the free resources LinkedIn offers.
You should start by building connections to people you already know. This could include former co-workers, current clients, local entrepreneurs and even friends and family. Because you never know who someone else may be connected too that could make for a top-notch candidate. You should also join groups where you might connect with potential candidates. For example, if you are always looking for IT consultants you can find an affiliated group on LinkedIn. Once you join relevant groups find ways to begin discussions with people in the group. If you notice people who are active in the group, they always ask questions and answer others questions, those might be the people you hone in on for job opportunities.
There is also a free way to advertise that you are hiring on LinkedIn without posting a job. Use your network activity box (also known as a status box) to broadcast that you are hiring. "Looking for an IT consultant. If you know someone, maybe even you. Contact me."
When you find someone who may be a good fit for your company you have to evaluate their LinkedIn profile. Does the person have a complete profile including a picture? Do they have recommendations from peers, managers and colleagues? Are they a member of groups relevant to their field? Do you have any 2nd or 3rd degree connections to the person to get a more personal referral? You can find out a lot about a person from their profile before contacting them for an interview. As small business owners, you can easily leverage LinkedIn to find talent.
How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool: Using Facebook
How many candidates do you have in your database? Whatever the number is it doesn't come close to how many potential candidates are on Facebook. Facebook provides easy and affordable ways to increase your applicant pool. First utilize the Facebook Directory to search for users, pages, groups and applications.
You can post a job for free in the Facebook Marketplace. The ad requires basic information such as location, job category, subcategory, title, why you need to fill this position, description and if you want to post your photo with the job posting or another image. The limitation of a free job posting is that you can't target it to a specific group of people like you can with a Facebook Ad.
Facebook Pages are another free resource within Facebook. A Facebook Page is a public profile that enables you to share your business and products with Facebook users. If you don't have a Facebook Page you can search other Facebook pages to find people both active and interested in your field or that would be interested in your available position. If your company has a Facebook page you may want to use it as a recruiting tool. Make sure the information about your company is relevant and up-to-date. You can also post job openings for your fans to see. These people are passionate about your company and can be just as passionate about working for your company.
Another option is to post a Facebook Ad if you aren't getting the results you want from searching. The advantage of the ad platform on Facebook over its rivals Google Adwords and Yahoo! Advertising is that Facebook has laser targeting ability. With a Facebook Ad you can choose the exact audience that you are looking to target. The system will ask a series of questions about the characteristics of the people you want to see your job posting ad. You will be asked about the group's age, sex and specific keywords related to the position. Facebook will then calculate how many users fit that criteria. You have the choice to pay per click (how many people clicked on your job ad), pay per impression (how many people potentially saw your ad) and set how much you are willing to pay. You can decide whether to run the job ad continuously or only during a certain time. If you know a woman would be better suited for your position, you can target your job posting to only be seen by women. The options are endless to how narrow a field you can define. Be careful to not make the criteria too specific or you may not get the applicants you want.
How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool: Using Twitter
Twitter can be powerful for small companies or a recruiter who wants to get an edge over the competition. The easiest way to recruit is to tweet jobs you have available. "Looking for a Sales Rep in Delhi, Very competitive salary, apply at (include a shortened url)."
If your company has a Twitter account but not a lot of followers you can expand your network and build relationships with clients and job candidates on Twitter. Run a quick search on Twitter (search.twitter.com) for anybody discussing a specific keyword and you can get hundreds of contacts. You can search for people you know, by location, by industry or interest, by hash tag, by popularity, by time and more.
To make your job posting tweets standout you can also use hash tags, #. Hash tags are used as a way to filter and find information on Twitter. All you have to do is include the hash tag with a keyword in your tweet and it becomes instantly searchable. Here are a few examples of hash tags you might consider using: #job, #jobpost, #employment, #recruiting, #hiring, #career, #staffing, #salesjob, #NAJ (that is Twitter lingo for 'Need A Job?') You can use more than one hash tag in your tweet but remember you are limited to 140 characters so be strategic in which hash tag or tags you use.
You can engage with candidates and see what topics they tweet about. There is also the opportunity to market events you will be attending. e.g."Stop by our career booth at the Sales Tech Expo."
There are companies like AdLogic that help businesses target to a particular Twitter audience. AdLogic lets clients create custom job feeds and corresponding specialized Twitter profiles for each area that they recruit for.
Your company Twitter account is also an opportunity to inform potential hires about your company. Your tweets say a lot about the company and what topics are important to your company.
When you find a potential candidate on Twitter evaluate their activity to see how often they tweet, if they have a healthy balance between followers and following, how big is their network and the quality of their tweets. Do they keep a balance between personal and professional tweets? Do they only post updates or do they respond to others and retweet others fully utilizing what Twitter is about?
Background check through Social/Professional Networking Websites:
Social media is a relatively new communication medium that continues to transform how we live our lives. However, social media is in its infancy in terms of its legal and policy implications. Like a credit or criminal background check, many employers, volunteer agencies, and other organizations (such as political parties) are now conducting social media background checks on future and prospective employees, volunteers, and candidates.
A “social media background check” can mean many things. It can be as simple as checking out a Facebook profile or as complicated as hiring someone to search for every bit of social media about an individual. The term “social media” in following guidelines captures a broad range of information such as social networking sites, blogs, micro-blogging, and file sharing sites (including photographs and video). As mentioned earlier these methods are suited while looking for candidates in the middle and senior management. Resumes are manipulated with lots of half truths and incomplete details. But studies have shown that somehow people tend to be more honest and open on social networking sites. Background check conducted via the above mentioned channels help you to lookout for signs of potential problems.
To important things need to consider with social media background checks:
Accuracy:
Information may be prone to errors, and social media is no exception. The ease with which individuals can link images and information that has been collected from social media to a name, increases the likelihood that the individual performing the check will collect inaccurate personal information. They might guess which social media account matches the name on a resume and screen out a candidate based on incorrect information. In other cases, they might access a social media account that has been set up by an imposter to discredit someone. Other factors that can compromise the accuracy of social media include mislabeled photographs and out-of-date information.
Privacy laws require public bodies and organizations to take steps to ensure that the information they collect is accurate. This requirement applies regardless of whether the individual performing the check is viewing information or if they save copies of the information.
Collecting irrelevant information, collecting too much information:
Like a dragnet, social media background checks can catch much more than what was intended. Collecting personal information from a social media site is a form of indirect collection; public bodies must have additional authority to collect the information indirectly, such as with that individual’s consent.
With other forms of information gathering, organizations and public bodies have greater opportunities to control the amount of information they collect. For example, an employer would normally ask references about a job candidate’s work habits but not about their marital status. With social media background checks, they can quickly lose control over the quantity of information they collect about an individual.
Similarly, public bodies and organizations have little control over the currency of the information they collect from social media. Someone might post photographs of an individual on social media sites that are several years old. In addition, many social networks make information available indefinitely. With other forms of background checks, individuals performing screening are usually able to specify in advance if they only want to see personal information from a certain period.
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