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Attracting talent via social media is gaining traction – even in-house recruiters are getting up to it.  So what’s all the fuss about?

 

A review of the Social Recruiting Workshop (#srws), May 2010

 

Yesterday I attended the British Library for Peter Gold’s latest experiment and, judging by the feedback, I imagine the nutty professor is feeling rather chuffed with himself today.  In any circumstance mixing agency recruiters with in-house mafia is a bit like dropping a fox into a chicken run: there’s bound to be trouble.  But, and to the surprise of many, feathers didn’t fly.

A monkey could do that

As one of the ‘facilitators’ I was given the dubious task of mentoring a pre-determined table of social recruiting (so-schul-re-cru-ting) enthusiasts.  Dubious because the workshop was about unlocking the secrets behind talent attraction from the Big 3: LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook.  Being as prolific in one aspect as I am ignorant in another, I was rather hoping to avoid questions about Facebook.  And thankfully they never came.  But they never came for LinkedIn or Twitter, either.

We have traction

So did Peter deliberately put me on a table with super brains?  I don’t think so.  I remained bereft of delegate questions because these guys already got it.  And this was the aspect I found most intriguing from the day.  I’d turned up imagining a bunch of students itching to jump on the bandwagon.  But actually, these guys were driving the wagon, or at least reading a map.  They’d moved on from being passengers twelve months ago and were speeding down the road to new-skool recruiting, where attracting talent via social networking (or media, if you prefer?) is now an integral part of the recruiting mix.  I was particularly pleased that what we’re doing at Only Marketing Jobs is beginning to resonate throughout the sector.

What was heard

For the agency recruiters the day started with Mark Williams (AKA Mr LinkedIn) eulogising – quite rightly – about the merits of this professional networking beast.  Delegates were encouraged to improve their profiles and make the most of the intricate search facility.  Next came a personal favourite, Andy Headworth: as usual his energy around Twitter made compelling content and the technical stuff was boggling; in particular – and I’m not alone in this – I loved the concept of http://www.followerwonk.com. 

We heard from the enigmatic Alex Hens and Paul Vernon who spoke about career website SEO; some of this was truly mind-blowing!  James Mayes was on hand to add to the Twitter dimension and talk technical (and boy, can he do that!)  To muddy the legal waters further, Kevin Barrow enlightened us with a [surprisingly] engaging insight to community ownership.

The impresarios for the day were the effervescent dynamic duo, Keith Robinson and Alan Whitford.

The revolution

So a revolution has started; there’s anarchy in the ranks.  I’m not sure who can first lay claim to being the Che Guevara of the recruitment world, but one thing’s for sure: an overthrow of traditional models is in full swing.  In relative, digital terms, social recruiting has stood the test of time.  It’s here.  And it’s multiplying with every new adopter; an enormous hulk of a creature, marauding the staffing landscape with a ferocious appetite for talent-attraction.  It was pleasing to see so many (60-odd I think) SR adopters and one suspects there will be even more next time round.

Handbags and headaches

No social media-related programme would be complete without a drink-up, and so this one stuck to form.  It’s no secret this is my favourite part of the day (#anyexcuseforabeer) and, actually, I think the next event should be in a bar from the start.  But that’s another matter.  To this one: accompanying the Usual Suspects were some new kids in town, who, as the pints turned into gallons, became increasingly bamboozled by the banter.  Bill Boorman pontificated; Lisa Scales bounced; Matt Alder was bombastic; Dave Martin intellectualised (can’t believe that’s a word!); and comedy due, Jones & Dinnen, laughed.  Lots. 

By 10pm I was home, broken but unbowed.  My head spinning for a myriad of reasons I was continually boosted by my lasting impression of the evening: Alex Hens hamming it up with Lisa’s handbag.  My, he looks lovely, doesn’t he?

 

So, there you go.  That’s social recruiting (sort of).  I’m not used to writing ‘blog-style’ and some might say this isn’t that.  But something about yesterday compelled me to be informal, personal and ‘real’; hopefully engaging, too.  I guess that’s what social recruiting does to you.  Lovely.

 

 

 

 

Here’s the rabble:

           

           

 

Simon Lewis | Editor | Only Marketing Jobs

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