Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/316485
[ 35 ] MAY 2014 | www.hrotoday.com Talent Acquisition But bear in the mind, the quality of the engagement can make or break the relationship. Today's job seekers are savvy. "Providing them with content and information that is going to build their knowledge and give them a better insight into your company and why it's special, rather than more generic or job-related information, is really key," says Jeremy Tipper, global head of consulting at Alexander Mann Solutions. 2. Build talent communities. What better way to ensure access to candidates than a group of people with pre- existing interest in your company, industry, product, or job opportunities? "There's a much stronger focus amongst RPO providers as well as employers to building proactive talent communities, as opposed to very reactively identifying people when they have an opening come available," says Beth Roekle, senior vice president for operations at Advantage xPO. Employers should also ensure they are taking additional steps to engage with the talent pool, because if not, candidates are bound to lose interest. Another benefit of the web-based nature of talent communities is that employers can source globally without the time and cost of traveling around the world. Candidates can also telecommute once hired, causing the pool of applicants to be exponentially larger. The talent pool can become even more substantial if companies allow their jobs to go viral, says Floersch. "What better way and cheaper way to get your jobs out there than to let the crowd do the sourcing?" 3. Keep a close eye on search engine optimization (SEO). Floersch explains that employers should examine the SEO of the open positions. If a potential candidate were to search for the industry, job, and location, how many pages on Google or Bing does it take to find the job description? 4. Leverage social media. More than 277 million people use LinkedIn around the world. That is an abundance of candidates to weed through, but it's also a sure sign that the perfect candidate is out there. According to The Innovation Imperative study conducted by Futurestep, 49 percent of candidates are more likely to consider a job if it was advertised in an innovative way. "That supports the increased value of leveraging social media in the RPO world or in any corporate environment," says Courtney Cook, vice president of strategic development at Futurestep. What ways can social media add value to the sourcing process? As a director of talent acquisition, Malach understands the myriad benefits social media delivers for outreach, including: "creating talent pools for pipelining candidates, passive candidate search and outreach, job postings, and building brand awareness." Advantage xPO's Roekle advises organizations to focus on using their networks in the most advantageous way. "The key to a strong social media strategy is having regular and frequent content that attracts and engages the populations that you're targeting," says Roekle. 5. Encourage employee referrals. Employee referrals have always been a strong method of finding candidates, but with current technology, employee referrals have become easier than ever. Tipper explains: "Let's say I, at AMS (Alexander Mann Solutions), am looking for a new person to join my marketing team. I will ping an email to all of my colleagues to let them know about that particular opportunity. And what those social referral technologies do is look at the LinkedIn, Facebook, [and] Google Plus networks of all my colleagues that work at AMS and identify people in their social networks that might have the skill set and interest in that particular marketing role. So all I then need to do is let those individuals know that this opportunity exists, send them a link to the role profile, and then they have the ability to apply for that position." According to recent study for Google, if job seekers don't experience a mobile friendly site, they're five times more likely to abandon the task they were intending to complete altogether, and 79 percent of mobile searchers say they will return to the search and look for an alternative.