Seasonal Hiring Fix: Social Recruiting
Seasonal hiring for 2014 significantly outpaced that of 2013.
In October, retailers went on the largest hiring spree ever recorded for that month according to Gray & Christmas Inc. who have been tracking seasonal hiring trends since 1939.
The seasonal hiring surge doesn’t end in October.
As the weather turns chilly, the war for talent burns hotter than ever before.
November will see most major retailers add even more staff than they did in October.
For a sense of scale, last year Kohl’s planned to add 53, 000 holiday workers, this year they plan to hire 76, 970.
UPS will add 40, 000 more seasonal workers in 2014 than they did in 2013, and FedEx’s seasonal hiring will best last year’s by 30, 000.
To meet holiday hiring goals companies are turning to social recruiting.
Along with #BOGO and campaigns promising candy cane scented candles for Likes, retailers are tweeting #hiring, and posting recruitment videos to their Facebook Pages.
When confronted with this year’s challenging hiring landscape, and 1, 000 seasonal positions that needed filling, Beverages and More Inc. turned to Twitter.
The company launched a social recruiting campaign that lead to a 66% increase in online applications.
Macy’s is using Twitter and Facebook to fill their predicted 86, 000 seasonal positions.
Want more inspiration? Canada Post has implemented a multi-channel social recruiting strategy worthy of imitation.
They make effective use of hashtags when posting jobs to Twitter:
And, not only do they share job postings on their Facebook Timeline, but they’ve created a Social Career Site on Facebook to promote all of their open jobs.
Why create a Social Career Site on top of your Company Career Site?
44% more candidates applied for jobs on Facebook using the Jobcast app this year (2014), compared to last year (2013).
Job seekers are more social than ever before.
29% of job seekers now use social media as the primary tool in their job search, and that number is growing as more and more millennials enter the labour force.
An Aberdeen study found that 73% of 18-34 year-olds found their last job through a social network.
These social job seekers are not just looking to social to find job postings, they are also using networks like Facebook to vet future employers based on their online employer brand.
Companies with branded Facebook Career Pages received 7 times more applications than those with non-branded Pages (Source: Survey of over 18, 000 Facebook Career Pages.)
Social recruiting isn’t just for the holidays.
Both Canada and the US are predicting a surge in hiring over the next year and social recruiting is one of the best tools you can have for getting ahead in this highly competitive recruitment landscape.
If you want to get started with social recruiting, check out these articles to learn more:
You can also give the Jobcast social recruiting app a try for free. Here’s a quick video that explains what Jobcast does:
Happy social recruiting 😀
