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ALKESH SHARMA / Emirates Business
Social media has evolved much beyond its literal meaning. It is now not only limited to adding numbers in the friends-list or gaining likes on posts. Eventually, it has emerged
as a potent tool for recruiting right talent for the 21st century corporate world.
Among the GCC nations, UAE is leading the bandwagon with nearly 78 percent of recruiters preferring to approach potential candidates first time only after browsing their profile online on some social networking site.
“When it comes to hiring, social media is not only limited to LinkedIn as many times we also get many good leads from other platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Infact these are the best mediums to tap the passive job candidates, who are actively not seeking to change their current job,†Anshul Kataria, Principal, Head-Tracker, a leading HR-firm that is headquartered in Dubai, told Emirates Business.
In one of its recent survey reports titled ‘Using Social Media for Talent Acquisition – Recruitment and Screening’, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) says that nearly 84 percent of the organisations used social media for recruitment in 2015 and around 9 percent are planning to use it. However, 77 percent of the organisations had used in 2013 while only 56 percent had availed it in 2011.
For most organisations, nearly 81 percent in 2015, it was one out of many recruiting tools used, but only 5 percent said it was their primary recruiting tool.
“You do not need to wait for the resumes and one can also get reliable endorsements regarding the right candidate on the social forums. In MENA region, consultancy sector is leader in recruiting candidates through social media and it is closely followed by IT,†pointed out Kataria.
Raaid Damati, Human Capital SaaS Sales Strategy Director, Oracle, ECEMEA Region, said, “Social media platforms can be explored to identify and connect with those people who possess the skills an organisation actually needs.†Damati is correct while commenting this as the number of individuals on social media significantly increases the size of the talent pool.
However, LinkedIn, which boasts of upto 100 million subscribers, is the most preferred social medium for hiring. As per the SHRM report, in 2015, 96 percent recruiters used LinkedIn, 66 percent Facebook and 53 percent went for Twitter. Whereas in 2013, 94 percent had chosen LinkedIn, while only 54 percent and 39 percent went for Facebook and Twitter respectively.
It should be noted that SHRM is one of the world’s most reliable organisations when it comes to gauge human resource trends. It is the world’s largest HR membership organisation devoted to human resource management. It represents over 275,000 members in more than 160 countries.
“This is my second job in the GCC region and I credit LinkedIn for both jobs. Though first time I was actually looking for a job, approaching various organisations myself, but my current employer approached me himself after checking my profile online. I trust this concept is fast picking up in this region,†Masha Abdullah, a Canadian citizen, who has recently joined the marketing division of a leading automobile company in Abu Dhabi, told Emirates Business.
