The New Age of Recruiting

April 30, 2012

There are countless ways that social networking makes life on the job more difficult. Managers worry about wasted time and certainly the easy path for negative comments to go public in any situation.

Yet social networking also brings many positive benefits to companies. For example, professional social networks provide an incredibly cost effective way for companies to recruit and companies seem to be noticing. Untangling the Social Web, the new study from the Coca‑Cola Retailing Research Council of North America, details many of these new benefits and changes to the recruiting process.

For instance, companies surveyed for the study report a strong increase in their use of social networking sites and websites for recruiting, while also predicting a sharp reduction in campus recruiting, job board and third-party recruiters. And job hunters recognize this change and are increasing their use of social networking sites to look for jobs.

As the study explains, nearly 85% of companies use LinkedIn for recruiting, 55% use Facebook and 46% use Twitter. No doubt, all three numbers will continue to climb as the general use of social networking continues to grow.

All five sections of the study, including Part 5 about professional needs, can be downloaded for free at www.ccrrc.org (North America page).

Michael Sansolo

Research Director

Coca‑Cola Retailing Research Council of North America