Social Media’s Role in Hiring

Equality Magazines aim to ensure that all sectors of society are represented within the US workforce as well as to raise awareness of the many advantages of including all parts of the community when hiring.

A targeted group of marketing materials enables minority groups and businesses – federal and private, large and small – to connect through a range of events that are run throughout the year or via online services.

The ongoing growth and popularity of social media means that it is now an essential part of most firms’ hiring strategies. It has also long been held as a great source of targeting harder-to-reach minority groups.

Take a look at the legislation that protects those looking for employment and some reasons why businesses should consider the full spectrum of social media when looking to sustain a diverse and inclusive workforce.

The legal aspect

As an employer there is much legislation to stop discrimination for race, sex, religion, age, national origin or color. Alongside this legislation is further direction and initiatives from the Government to ensure that firms remain diversity compliant. These laws are the cornerstones of US policy and as such must be upheld by all firms – large or small, federal or private. As well as these issues regarding recruitment there is further legislation regarding health and safety in the workplace to protect employees whilst they are at work.

Successful policing of all this legislation is the responsibility of employers and employees alike. If there appears to have been a transgression where perhaps a potential employee feels that their application was not successful because of something other than their ability – their age, their accent, their color, their background, or maybe an accident at work that has lead to sickness or injury it should be followed up immediately. Most firms will have a procedure for this, evidence must be gathered and potentially a legal process pursued.

Why use social media?

The ever growing breadth of social media and the ease with which people can connect with it, and each other, means that social media is now truly a force to be reckoned with. No forward thinking business would choose to now ignore its power in building a brand and providing diversity recruitment solutions.

The types of people who use social media are ever expanding and it is now only slightly more skewed to the younger generation. The audience is arguably more diverse and far easier to segment into identifiable minorities – making it simpler as a recruiter to target specific areas that are perhaps currently underrepresented. 

Targeting these minority talent networks will enable a more effective and efficient recruitment plan to be enacted. After all, most social networks run along the same lines as “real” networks in that they often fall in the same categories such as gender, race or shared experiences. Social media platforms therefore offer all businesses a perfect way to interact with minority (as well as majority) workforces, to build their employee brand in these arenas and encourage diverse applications to their recruitment campaigns.

However the argument that all social media is split along certain lines is not always true and that’s one of the most fantastic things about it – that it continues to evolve and innovate – and it is completely inclusive offering a way for people from all types of backgrounds to interact.

It’s no longer enough to simply post some diversity stock photos on your careers page or add some inclusive copy. The very best businesses take diversity seriously and want to show their commitment to their audiences and that they have built diversity deep into their employer branding.

This growth in social media has also meant far many more employees are now chatting about their work and their businesses ethos – what would the conversation be about your organization?

Identifying your target social media

To illustrate how social media can target specific groups, consider this; it has recently been reported that the gender gap in the usage of social media is beginning to even out. There has been a relatively sudden rise in the number of men using social media in comparison to a year ago. Interestingly though there is still a major difference in the type of social media that they use – it appears that men prefer Reddit and Twitter whilst women prefer Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook.

Instantly it becomes more apparent which social media to target if, for example, you are looking to recruit more females. The importance of tailoring your content to your audience is paramount – social media, as with all media, needs to be specific to the individual audience. A broadcast message across all audiences is never going to work – ensure the messages are as individual as the talent network you are talking to and you’ll be surprised by the results you might get.