We really enjoyed last week’s Social Recruiting Conference. It was extremely well organised with two lively panel debates and very strong keynote presentations  from global businesses such as Unilever, Accenture, Societe Generale and Pepsico alongside a compelling case study from The Challenge Network, a charity utilising social media to find volunteers through referrals and networking.

One thing came through loud and clear. It’s people than count! Most of the key themes running through the day centred on people and the need for social media to enhance personal interactions not replace them.

Some of our favourite messages were:

Real people should be at the heart of any digital engagement initiative – sounds straight forward enough but many businesses speak with a corporate voice which can come across as impersonal and stifle authenticity

People make decisions based on the people they meet – key part of the recruitment process will always be the person to person interactions, giving potential employees the opportunity to find out what it’s really like to work there

Recruitment should be an experience, not a process – following on from the last point it is too easy to over-automate the recruitment process, leaving the applicant without a compelling reason to choose one company over another

Your employees should refer people because they want to not because they’re told to – many businesses are now looking to maximise their employees’ personal networks alongside alumni connections, usually through incentivisation. The real incentive though is having a company culture that inspires your staff to want to recommend their friends and contacts.

Leave candidates you don’t hire with a great impression of your company, they will surely be your future advocates – we have written before about the importance of companies recognising that job candidates are consumers and potential ambassadors. It was a theme running through the day too.

A recruitment need is a marketing opportunity so recruiters need more varied skills – if the candidate experience improves you will have a new stream of converts, some of whom will no doubt go on to work within client companies with a strong belief in your values. The future recruiter will need a much better appreciation of communication, marketing, engagement and relationship management to make it happen.

The conference itself inspired much tweeting and blogging. We can recommend these three blog summaries:

Recruitment Revelations from Social Recruiting Conference 2011

Five Thoughts from the Social Recruiting Conference

What Lisa learned at SRCONF

You’ll be able to hear more about some of these ideas on HR Happy Hour Europe (July 13th) when Matthew Jeffery (one of the panellists at #SRCONF and author of ‘Recruitment 3.0’) will be our special guest.

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