Jenni Gilbert Comments online from past or present employees, positive or not, now influence the decisions of more than 80 percent of job seekers, says Sarah Smyth*.
During our in-depth recruiting process, we have been increasingly receiving feedback from candidates that are performing due diligence checks on employers/companies through online blogs, and search engines.
Poor online reviews from current or past employees can have a huge impact on people’s perceptions of a company, and employers need to put more effort into engagement to ensure workers feel valued during and beyond employment.
With former employees potentially becoming powerful brand ambassadors, an organisation needs to make sure they leave with a smile on their face and a willingness to talk positively about their employment experience with your organisation.
Current and departing staff will share insights on a range of topics; from pay rates, benefits, feedback on managers, and the performance expectations of an organisation.
At the moment, employees through social media are controlling the quality and scope of information coming out of an organisation, rather than the organisation controlling the message about what it’s like to work for them.
What can we do as a recruiter to help an organisation better manager the cyber message that maybe damaging your brand?
- Recognise that three out five of your staff partake in social media conversations.
- Whatever is written about your company and uploaded to the internet can be searched for and found by job seekers and your clients.
- Be proactive: Identify the participants and take early action. A social media workplace policy gives you the opportunity to nip it in the bud as soon as a source is indentified.
- Conduct social media profiling of all new employees prior to engagement.
Innovative recruitment companies such as ours offer options that provide for pre-employment social media profiling of all shortlisted candidates, identifying a problem prior to employment.
We have also developed a software program that monitors all the commonly used social media sites, by using “key word, and key phrase search”.
For example, we would enter your company name into the search field, and then the software searches for the word through all the social media sites. Early intervention can help you protect your brand.
Sarah Smyth* is Social Media Manager (Jobs) at Recruitme employment service. RECRUITME.NET.AU
