Nonprofit HR’s Blog

By Alicia Schoshinski, Senior HR Consultant

The use of social media in recruitment continues to increase in popularity.  As people spend more time on these sites the savvy organization will also need to utilize these sites to find candidates.

According to a 2013 SHRM survey, 77% of organizations are using social networking sites for recruitment.  The same survey showed that for-profit organizations are more likely than nonprofits to use these sources, possibly because nonprofits often do not have the staff resources dedicated to effective recruitment.  The 2013 Nonprofit Employment Trends Survey showed that 39% of nonprofit organizations responding felt that their use of social networking sites in recruitment had a positive impact on the number of candidates applying.

Using Social Networking in Recruitment

There are a number of reasons why organizations use social media outlets as part of their recruitment strategy.  The first is to source candidates.

Social media recruiting is a cost-effective way to source candidates.  Gone are the days of having to pay a premium to advertise in a newspaper and hope that a group of candidates will see the job posting.  Now, social media outlets offer “reasonable” pricing for job postings that reach high volumes of job seekers, and even passive candidates.  A key benefit to social media recruitment is the ability to reach those workers who are not necessarily looking for a new position. Their social media site activity, however, makes them aware of new job opportunities that might incite them to consider making a change.

Organizations also use social media to target candidates with specific skill sets. They are able to do this through websites of professional or trade associations or by networking through certain social media outlets.  Over 80% of the positions targeted through social networking are managerial jobs or non-managerial salaried jobs, according to the same 2013 SHRM survey.

Most generations are social media savvy.  People now spend more time on social networking sites than searching for information.  Since that is the case, organizations seeking candidates need to go to where the candidates are.  In particular, if an organization is trying to recruit candidates such as recent college graduates, many of them can be found on social networking.

In addition to identifying candidates through social media outlets, organizations are using these resources to screen candidates.  They search social media sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook to find out more about the candidates.  However, this can pose many legal risks which are identified below.

Read the complete whitepaper here.

Want to know more about where social media recruitment is heading? Register for the 2016 Nonprofit Talent & Culture Summit here.