Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/182340
Talent Management How Clinicians Use Social Media According to the AMN survey, a striking 85 percent of clinicians use social media in a variety of ways, including to source jobs. While pushing out job postings to candidates isn't a bad idea, employers shouldn't discount the opportunity to share the company's values, culture, and purpose via social media as well. Consider using social media to raise your flag of authenticity through videos, peer-to-peer interaction, and directly through the voice of your customer and employees. Begin to establish yourself as an authority in the field by building awareness about a specific career path within an industry. Take, for example, American Mobile Healthcare (an AMN Healthcare company) and the website TravelNurisng.com recently hosting a video contest, The Traveler's Journey. It called for nurses to develop videos showcasing why travel nursing is a career opportunity to consider. The program provided real stories, peer-to-peer advice, and high interaction. In fact, one of the most popular aspects of the contest included allowing the community to choose the winning video. Some of the videos were also sponsored on Facebook and shared on YouTube, and they remain a popular resource for nurses to learn about the career opportunity. AMN's survey of social and mobile media also shows that one in four clinicians use social media to research companies, which gives rise to the opportunity to focus on your employment brand. What's more, one-third of healthcare professionals use social media to see if they know someone in a company to make a career connection, and one in five use social media to locate recruiters. At Med Travelers (an AMN Healthcare company), allied recruiters are frequently contacted by candidates on their personal and company social sites, particularly Facebook and LinkedIn. In fact, a recent connection made between a Med Travelers recruitment manager and a candidate resulted in a successful hire and a recommendation on the social site where they connected, which has since led to other career connections. Social Sites of Choice Clinicians have fine-tuned where they spend their social time. Most notably, their top career-related social site has shifted from Facebook to LinkedIn. Facebook was the dominant choice among nurses and allied professionals, and to a lesser degree among physicians and pharmacists, for the past few years. In 2013, LinkedIn catapulted ahead: 58 percent of clinicians now select it as their preferred site for career purposes. Their second favorite is Facebook (24 percent) and Google+ (10 percent) is a distant third. Twitter is currently favored by only 1 percent of clinicians. Apparently clinicians are in the right place, as Forrester and Simply Hired reported in June that recruiters are also leaving Facebook behind in favor of LinkedIn. Nurses, doctors, and other healthcare professionals are also taking a look at their professional reputations online. The majority of clinicians surveyed said they enhanced their social profiles online this year. It's a smart idea: online image management websites like Trusted ID and Reppler.com are sources recruiters leverage for professional discrepancies and assessing candidates' online images. According to AMN's survey, 61 percent of clinicians updated their profiles in 2013. About one-third said they refrained from posting negative/offensive content, 25 percent updated their profiles with a professional image, while 24 percent chose to make their profiles private. In addition, candidates are showing they understand the value of keyword discovery—14 percent enhanced their profiles with topics relevant to jobs of interest. About 10 percent also used their contacts for professional gain or requested endorsements from connections. The bottom line? Talent sourcing continues to evolve for organizations. Understanding the candidate's digital, social, and technological behaviors is critical to being seen as a trusted career advisor. Tap into the networks where your audience interacts—then listen, learn, engage, experiment, and refine. No two solutions are likely to be the same for every company. Carol Johnson, MBA, is vice president of sourcing and digital marketing for AMN Healthcare. To request your complimentary copy of survey results, contact her directly at carol.johnson@amnhealthcare.com. SEPTEMBER 2013 | www.hrotoday.com [59]