One of the most important problems faced by science recruitment companies has always been how to attract candidates looking for jobs in science. The emergence of social media has not only impacted on jobseekers, it has also revolutionized the way recruiters like CK Science operate and how they try to communicate with candidates looking for scientific careers.
Traditionally, tracking down candidates who may not actively be job seeking involves a cold call from the recruiter to the prospective candidate. Although that is often an effective approach, today’s recruiter now has many other tools at his disposal, such as social media, and CK Science has been quick to take these up and use them to good effect.
So what exactly is social media?
Twitter is a social networking site, which has an estimated 55,000,000 visitors per month. It is a great way for recruiters to both tap into passive candidate pools and to network with employers who may be interested in using our services for scientific recruitment. Twitter can be used both as a conversational tool and as an informational tool.
Follow CK Science on Twitter
LinkedIn is a business-networking site. It was launched in May 2003 and had 300 users. Since then it has seen unprecedented growth with 50,000,000 users in October 2009, and 1,400 new users each day. Here at CK Science, we use LinkedIn as a tool to source candidates who may not be actively seeking a science job, but would still be interested in hearing about suitable vacancies.
Join the CK Science LinkedIn Group
Facebook is a social networking site that was launched in 2004. By mid 2004 half of Harvard University students were members. There are 250,000,000 users per month, and 100,000,000 users per day. It’s among the top 10 most visited sites.
Most people use Facebook as a way of keeping in contact with family and friends, however, it is also a useful networking and job-hunting tool. CK Science are fully aware of this and we like to use Facebook as a way to engage in conversations with active and passive candidates.
You can become a fan of CK Science on Facebook
YouTube is the 4th most visited site in the world and cannot be ignored. CK Science is one of the first recruitment companies to appreciate the potential of using YouTube as an online recruitment tool. After all, it is a great way to create a vast viral networking following at no cost.
The main way that CK Science attracts scientific candidates through YouTube is by uploading video job advertisements. We have found this to be a great way to connect with candidates in a more human and personalised way and we have seen promising results.
Meet some of our consultants at our YouTube Channel
We now know what social media is, but how can this be used to attract passive candidates who might be interested in scientific jobs?
Engaging with Passive Jobseekers to Fill Scientific Roles
CK Science use social media to target our scientific recruitment services in a specific way. In terms of passive candidates, using the search tool on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn means that we are able to discuss many more relevant positions with them. From the client’s point of view, the use of social media in this way ensures that we spend more time targeting the right people for them to fill their scientific jobs.
Once we have found potential job seekers relevant to our field of scientific recruitment, we proactively use social media to engage with them in an open manner, providing them with careers advice, industry news and support. This not only helps us attract more candidates, but it also helps us engage them. By using social media to both educate and inform, and not to directly sell, we are able to build sustainable long-term relationships with them.
For example, CK Science has produced a series of short YouTube videos providing advice regarding the following:
- How to prepare for an interview
- What to do ten minutes before an interview
- The 3 most commonly asked questions in an interview
- Top 5 interview tips
Please visit our YouTube Channel over the coming weeks to see these videos.
We further complement this process by picking up the phone and directly speaking with passive jobseekers. Using this combination of social media and direct contact, we are able to get a real understanding of the needs of our candidates, enabling us to help them find their perfect role.
This, in turn, helps us to provide an exemplary service to our clients. By using social media to really get to grips with what the passive jobseeker is about, we are able to create a great match between candidate and job. This means we don’t waste our clients’ time putting inappropriate candidates in front of them.
Nothing Quite Beats the Human Touch
In essence, here at CK Science we utilize social media to indentify high quality candidates in the science sector who might not otherwise have come to light, thus increasing our talent pools significantly within our key scientific disciplines. Not only this, but we also utilize social media to both educate and inform our audience, thus indirectly attracting the more passive or casual jobseeker.
Whilst CK Science appreciates the value that social media can add to both clients and candidates, we also recognize that it is still human contact provided by our professional recruiters that adds the overriding value. After all, nothing quite beats the human touch.
