Social Media killed the Recruitment star

Well the Video did it to the radio star. I was recently reading a blog article, written by the effervescent Andy Headworth (@Andyheadworth) Blog link: http://bit.ly/jWXHWI that discussed Recruiting ROI on Social Media activity, and he makes a very (very) valid point. Money is invested heavily in new technology, but often with utter disregard to the return that it brings to your organisation.

His post, however, got me thinking… more along the lines of recruitment agency businesses and I thought I’d take some time out of my day to consider and review how agencies are coping and adapting to the rise and rise (and rise) of Social Media.

We read every day about massive successes from all out marketing campaigns run on Facebook (and Twitter). Companies that engage customers and potential customer to huge success.

One recent case study that won me over was run by Gillette, a friend of mine had ‘Liked’ them on Facebook and followed up with a Status to tell us that if you ‘Like’ them they will send you the latest version of the Mach 1.43.521 razor saving me a tidy £543! (OK, I jest but point made!) Shortly after an email arrived in my inbox to tell me that I was (shock, horror) a winner and that my latest Gillette Razor would be on my doorstep in less than 7 days!

That’s the power, they engage, they bring you in, they have something you may want and they open discussion, from asking Jonny Wilkinson any question you like to feature in their next TV Advert, it’s all there on a daily basis.

So, back to recruitment… and the agency side of the business. I think we’re all in agreement that the agency business model is dying, HR professionals (@recruitgal in particular) have told the business loud and clear that they’re not going to be pals for much longer as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter is coming along to kick the ass of an already struggling industry.

Big firms are investing, and investing heavily in Social Media to rid the requirement of the agency. They are producing Pages that allow people in their thousands to ‘Like’ and agencies sit on their backsides and incredibly watch it happen. They are able to talk to potential employees as they enjoy their breakfast or their quick glance whist the wife is watching Emmerdale. It’s there every day, in their pocket, in their five minute sneaky peek at work, or on the bus waiting to get to work. The opportunity is endless…But here are some findings that just blew my mind:

Michael Page International, arguably one of the highest regarded recruitment firms on the planet has 835 Likes. 835… Not even in their thousands, and that page is taken from Wikipedia via the Community Link. No office addresses, no email, no website, no information about anything….other than the firm was formed in 1976 and the last CEO left some time ago.

Incredibly Michael Page UK has 25 followers. To put this into perspective The We Love Nick Griffin Page (of BNP fame) has 33. That is 8 more than the whole of Michael Page in the UK.

I thought I’d try again, at the other end of the spectrum and conducted a Facebook search for the ‘Leading’ High Street Agency – Office Angels. Owned by Adecco, the World’s largest Staffing Services firm with a turnover of Billions (I mean, surely they’d get it right?). Wrong.

It appears that bored consultants or CV preppers got so disenchanted with their day job they thought they’d set up a page for their branch. The search shows that there are pages for some branches (Bracknall, London, Preston) some are pages, some you have to ‘Friend’ as they have (against the rules outlined by Facebook) entered the branch as a person.

What appears to be their official Page has 550 Likes but has no jobs, no branch finder; it also has some photos of a fancy dress day and some photos of pink balloons. What makes you think that a job seeker wants to see your photos of you drinking in the office and dressed in ill fitting leggings with pink socks?

I think the industry has to wake up.

Social Media is here, and it’s getting bigger.

Job Boards appear to have totally forgotten that Facebook probably has every candidate they have on their database but chooses to not engage them AT ALL on Facebook. I can’t find the Monster page, Total Jobs appears to have a Wiki fuelled page with 12 Likes. 12?!?!?!!!?!?!?? You are a technology company that manages the data of thousands of CVs a day and you don’t think it’s worth while to invest in a page that talks to people in their social (media) time?

I sat back and heard the tales of the disbelief when the recession came along and crushed (in many cases) really good recruitment firms, because they didn’t see it coming, but lets be real guys.

Facebook has been here for a few years now, and his friends Mr.LinkedIn and Mrs. Twitter aren’t too newbie any more, but you sit back with your feet up thinking that it’s all going to come back to normal, but listen to people like @recruitgal and take note.

It ain’t going to get better. Only worse.