Using social media to resource people - how effective can it be for a business?

A number of organizations at the moment are trialing the use of sites such as Linked In, Twitter and Facebook to resource candidates for internal roles directly. The rationale behind this? To try to avoid agency costs and any associated advertising spend. It will be interesting to see how well this works for companies in the long run; my guess would be that there are a few factors that will come into play.

Firstly, the size of the organization - if there is an employee (s) whose sole role is resourcing then it makes sense that these extra channels are used to find people, as long as there is the spare budget for placing the adverts. However, in large organizations recruitment consultancies are often used alongside direct advertising.

Secondly, the response is often very varied, as to find a job on Linked In for example, you have to be searching for it, unless it is posted on a group of which you are a member, in which case you may notice it. The feedback I am getting from companies who are choosing to use this method solely, is that it is taking a very long time to find the right people. Line managers are therefore getting frustrated at the process and more pressure is put on existing members of staff. Not good.

The point that seems to be being skimmed over at the moment is that even if you find the right person via that route, you have to look at the time spent on doing so. Many CVs have to be assessed and responded to, most of whom won't be suitable. Then there is the time spent on interviewing incorrect people because there is no history or other information available via these means. You are basing your decision around whether to interview someone purely on a piece of paper and perhaps a telephone conversation.

I don't know if you remember the "big boom" of the on-line IT recruiters a few years back where consultants weren't meeting people they were submitting for roles, and in lots of instances weren't even talking to them? Whilst seemingly efficient it was quickly established that this was not a great way for the industry to move as a whole.

It pays to remember the point of using recruitment businesses to find the best people. We take the hard work out of the process. We meet every candidate and offer detailed additional information on personality and potential pitfalls. We should in some instances shorten the time spent on finding the right people. We are experts in our field and therefore able to add value to the process.

Recruiters should definitely be using social media sites as a route to finding additional suitable candidates - it is just another resource that is now available to us to find the best people for you.

Mary Driscoll is a Managing Partner at Maven Partners, a specialist Interim Management and Temporary Recruitment business.

marydriscoll@mavenpartners.co.uk