Recently, NPA, The Worldwide Recruiting Network conducted a member-owner meeting in Beijing. International recruiters attended the meeting from not only many countries in Asia but also from Australia and North America. The meeting agenda consisted of a combination of business, networking, and sightseeing opportunities.
While this meeting involved face-to-face communication, international recruiters must often communicate with clients and candidates via the telephone or online including through social media. How effective is social media usage in Asia Pacific? In March 2012, Alexander Mann Solutions and Chapman Consulting Group conducted an online survey of Asia Pacific recruiters regarding the impact of social media. Read on to learn about key findings:
Social Media Usage
- 84% of organizations use social media as a recruitment tool
- The type of social media used doesn’t change greatly between corporate usage and personal usage – 88% of organizations have a corporate profile on LinkedIn; 90% of recruiters use LinkedIn to recruit
- Singapore shows greatest appetite for a variety of social media channels, with over half using three or more channels
- Singapore / Hong Kong are more diverse in choice of social media channels, with recruiters choosing from a wider range of social media
How Recruiters Use Social Media
- Australia tends to focus on branding (80%) and sourcing (100%) activities, largely avoiding using social media to screen candidates
- Hong Kong / Singapore use social media to vet candidates (29% in Hong Kong, 39% in Singapore)
- Hong Kong / Singapore will exclude or reject candidates based on their social media profiles (14% Hong Kong, 17% Singapore, respondents from other countries typically won’t)
- China is not convinced of the long-term benefits and uses of social media in sourcing, featuring below the other countries in all uses of social media
Conclusion
One of the most important conclusions made at the end of the summary report involved the future of recruiting:
- While social media is an important component of recruitment, it’s clear that it is unlikely to replace ‘core’ recruitment activity – it will be an enhancement to certain areas, such as employer branding; and a method of driving effectiveness and efficiency in others, such as sourcing and screening.
Recruiters concerned about the time and effort required to effectively leverage social media should look towards ways of measuring the effectiveness of their activity via social media. Multiple measurement tools exist, and through measurement it is far easier to target which media and activity drive the best results. This in turn reduces non-essential activity, and ultimately reduces the time load on recruiters.
If you are an international recruiter, which social media tools do you find most useful?
To view an Infographic summarizing the usage of social media in recruitment and HR in Asia Pacific, click on the following line:
Social_Media_Infographic_FINAL_HI_RES pdf
Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net