Daemon Within

Can you hear me?

Posted on 11. Jan, 2012 by in Employer Branding

Listening.

It’s step 2 of the 12 Steps to finding staff in the social web…..and it’s the MUST DO precursor to any social media activity.

So once  you’ve set your goals for B2E social media activity, STOP, and take 5. WAIT before you set up that  Twitter Account and start blabbing about the fabulous jobs you have open!

The critical listening stage will provide HRDs and Hiring Managers with an understanding of candidate interests, behaviours, likes and gripes (not to mention talent competitor insights).

Before actively engaging with your candidate tribes, being smart – and patient – enough to listen and observe will play a crucial role in creating a successful social engagement strategy. A strategy that will vastly improve your hiring efforts.

In order to listen with maximum effect, there are a number of stages to consider which I’ve outlined here; possibly not all relevant depending upon your workforce size and organisational complexity.

But remember this: whether you’re convinced or not of the need to participate in online conversations for talent sourcing, the act of listening is fast becoming a business imperative.

STAGE DESCRIPTION RESOURCES NEEDED IMPACT
1) No objective HRDs have decided to listen but with no pre-set goals; unsure of how to use the information for anything resourceful. Simple social alerting tools, like Google Alerts and Feedreaders. Also time: identifying the talent groups; talent competitors; and industry activity you want to listen to.

 

 At the basic level, simple awareness (but of course with zero action from the data gathered, this isn’t time well invested).
2) Tracking of brand mentions. Context: EVP and Employer Brand Like traditional “clip reports” of media relations, companies now track mentions in the social space, both for brand and employer reputation purposes. But with no guidance, what to do next? Listening platform with report capability based on brand or keywords (eg by skill set). Radian 6, Visible Technologies, Techrigy/Alterian, Buzzmetrics and Cymfony, Dow Jones are providers. Improved EB awareness tracking volume of information, yet won’t track depth, or tonality of conversations. As a result, not complete insight into candidate & competitive market.

 
3) Identifying risks and opportunities This proactive process involves seeking out discussions online that may result in identifying flare-ups, or possible candidate opportunities. In addition to a listening platform existing talent actively seek out discussions and revert to internal teams. Alerting tools and listening platforms recommended. Reduce risk of flare-ups before they become mainstream; identify talent prospects and unhappy competitors’ people.

 
4) Improving Recruitment campaign efficiency Rather than just measure a recruitment marketing effort after it’s occurred, using tools to gauge during in-flight; yields real-time campaign efficiency (including ROI). Dedicated resource to manage reactions, activity, and sentiment to a recruitment marketing effort, and the resources to make course corrections nearly real-time. Traditional web analytics tools like Omniture, Webtrends and Google Analytics are common.

 

 More effective campaigns, as hot spots are bolstered, and dead spots diminished. Time and cost per hire reduced. Better opportunity to engage with quality hires. “Best Fit” talent.
5) Responding to candidate inquiry This proactive response finds candidates where they dwell online (fish where fish are) in order to answer questions. Example: ask candidates in a specific skill set/job family about succession plans in their organisations, via Twitter.

 

 An active recruitment team that’s empowered, training, and ready to make real-time responses (nearly) around the clock. Candidates with a greater sense of satisfaction. Can backfire, as it teaches prospective hires to ‘yell in public’ to get a response.

Source: I’ve borrowed the format from Jeremiah Owyang’s “Web Strategy”, but customised it for  B2E. Thanks Jeremiah!

In July 2011, Dell commissioned Forrester to conduct research on ‘Listening and Engaging in the Digital Marketing Age’. Findings showed information collected during the ‘listening’ phase provided organisations with key insights that were used to create strategies across all areas of the business.

Report what you learn. Share it with your stakeholders. Use the learnings for all workforce groups, business-wide.

Have you listened to your future hires online yet? Let me know!

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