Hiring Goes Hybrid: Social Recruiting is Overtaking Traditional Methods of Hiring

The question in 2021 is less about how we get back to the employer-employee relationship of the past but how we navigate the acceleration of trends and address what’s next. Technology has revolutionized our lives, including how we get hired for jobs.

The internet has facilitated the most significant impact on how we get hired. For your career to continue to experience growth and expansion, it is crucial that you know where to be seen and heard online. Getting hired in 2021 will require a multi-faceted approach, including targeted resumes and applying for jobs online while capitalizing on the new innovative ways hiring managers are using the internet and social media for hiring.

So, what is Social Media?

• Social media are websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking. (Google Dictionary)
• Social media is any digital tool that allows users to create and share content with the public quickly.

Hiring Managers Use Social Media. So Should You. In the past year, five important trends have emerged that will change the way you get hired. Social Media will continue to play a critical role in digital hiring strategies. “Socially recruited” is becoming the norm as more Hiring Managers utilize the new generation of recruiting tools that can search multiple social media and websites at once to find top talent.

The Five Trends that are Accelerating Social Recruiting:

1. With more digitalization, automation, and the growth of data-driven cultures, the skills gap continues to widen, making it harder to find skilled candidates to fill jobs.
2. Companies are more dynamic and need to find top talent quicker. They use AI and ML search tools to search for candidates where the candidates are online instead of waiting for the candidate to find the company.
3. The new generation of job seekers expects hiring managers to seek them out on places like their Personal Portfolio Website, Linkedin, Behance, Stackoverflow, Kaggle, user groups, Github, Upwork, Fiverr, TopTal, Facebook, Medium, Presenter Bios, Public Whitepapers, Patents, crowdsourced competitions, and other new places.
4. It can be challenging for hiring managers to gauge the capabilities of emerging skill sets. Companies such as Google, Amazon, and other Professional Certifiers are increasingly connecting people to top employers after program completion through the learning platform. 
5. There has been a shift from hiring to replace people to hiring people to shape the future. This shift makes traditional job orders an ineffective way to find the talent companies need to stay innovative, resilient, and forward-thinking.

By the Numbers:

• 91% of employers are using social media to hire talent, today. (CareerArc)
• 80% of employers say social recruiting helps them find passive candidates. (Betterteam)

Candidates Agree that hiring managers are actively using social media for hiring.

• Job seekers rank social media as one of the most helpful job search resources over traditional methods. (CareerArc)
• 73% of 18- to 34-year-olds found their last job through a social media network. (Research Firm Aberdeen Group)

How to get started: For most people having a public profile on LinkedIn is the best place to build their initial professional social media profile. Why? Three people are hired through LinkedIn every minute. For best results, utilize all sections to build a robust resume and portfolio that is easy to find by technology and hiring managers.

The Win: People have always believed that if they could just get in front of the hiring manager, they could get the job. Luckily, social recruiting is helping people get in front of more decision-makers. Most people are so much more than their resumes. Digital technology allows candidates to create the right portfolio and easily share it on social media.