India is becoming a largest digital market of the world. No doubt, ‘social hiring’ is one of the most prominent trends in Indian recruitment domain. If we look at the stats: (Source: Hexagonsearch)
- Over 94% recruiters use LinkedIn to recruit new candidates,
- 79% of job seekers use social media to find new jobs,
- KPMG India Partner and Head (People and Change) Nishchae Suri reckons over 80% of companies use social media for recruitment.
This survey is designed to identify the current trends in ‘Social Media Hiring’ in context with Indian IT recruitment domain.
Highlights of the Survey:
A. Linkedin is the most favourite platform: Linkedin is indisputably most favourite social media recruitment platform of the recruiters. 64% participants chose Linkedin as their first choice among available social media platforms,
B. Linkedin and Facebook are widely used: Linkedin and Facebook were the most preferred options in most of the criteria,
C. Twitter is most valuable in employment branding: Twitter is the least chosen social media platform by the participant recruiters. However I did a quick survey over half of the sample size and 92% recruiters preferred Twitter for ‘employer Branding’ rather utilizing it for recruitment,
D. Facebook has fastest response time: Recruiters chose Facebook over Linkedin when it comes to ‘response time’ and ‘identify contact details’,
E. FB Messenger adds the value: Facebook is the first choice of maximum participants in term of Faster response because of the two distinct facts.
1. A normal person is more active on Facebook than any other social networking sites
2. Facebook messenger offers utility of direct and fastest message delivery,
F. Stack Overflow has Unique Identity: Participants widely elected Stack Overflow (30%) over Facebook (2%) when it comes to leadership and niche skill hiring. It indicates the distinctive value of Stack overflow among other social media platforms,
G. Stack Overflow is Emerging: Stack Overflow was chosen (51%) over Linkedin (46%) and FB (2%) when it comes to niche hiring. Niche hiring requires niche screening which goes beyond the content of resume. Stack The trend clearly indicates that recruiters are frequently using reputation and code repository of the professionals, active on Stack Overflow,
H. Github is least popular: Although Github has similar platform to Stack Overflow,
participants did not prefer it for the social hiring,
I. Social Mix is the key: Social media platforms are not originally designed for recruitment. Naturally, every social media platform has peculiar advantages and disadvantage. Best strategy for social hiring could be ‘Social Mix’ where combination of multiple social media platforms can generate much better outputs.
As an example, Linkedin be used to identify relevant profile. However FB messenger can be used to generate faster response.
Areas of Concern:
1) Stack Overflow is preferred platform for leadership hiring and niche hiring. Facebook has been recognized for good volume of candidates and faster responses, still Linkedin has been categorically defined as the best platform for social hiring
Are we still living within the comfort zone of recruiting through job portal and considering Linkedin as ‘social job portal’?
2) More than 90% of the respondents who chose Stack Overflow in any of the answers have experience of more than 5 years.
Recruitment community should help entry level recruiters to think beyond conventional social hiring platforms (Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter) and introduce the unconventional exclusive platforms?
Survey Structure
Sample Size: 63
Eligibility: 1+ years of experience in IT Recruitment
Objective Of the Survey:
– Identify best platform for social hiring,
– Identify preference of IT recruiters among the available social media platform,
– Identify the peculiar benefits of the each social media platform.
Q1: Which platform is most suitable for performance hiring?
Q2: Which platform has generated fastest response from candidates?
Q3. Which platform has generated most relevant candidates?
Q4: Which platform has offered Maximum number of candidates?
Q5: Which platform has offered fastest access to the contact details of candidates?
Q6: Which platform has offered better profiles for leadership hiring?
Q7: Which platform has offered better profiles for Mass hiring?
Q8: Which platform has offered better profiles for Vanilla skills?
Q9: Which platform has offered better profiles for Niche skills?
Q10: Which platform has generated maximum response from candidate?
Please share your views and suggestion 
Hope you enjoyed this article. Don’t forget to share your views. You can also tweet your comments to @Rezoomex and @Saurabh_Karnik1 with #TechHiringBlog
With more than 5 years of experience in IT recruitment, Saurabh Karnik is someone who has delivered top notch candidate experience throughout. He is currently working with Webonise Lab and holds the position of a recruitment specialist.
He is passionate about Social Media Hiring and keeps a close watch on cutting edge sourcing techniques. A foodie with an equal interest in Books, Movies and Social Networking.