The importance of Social Media to both employers and candidates was stressed in an article published recently in the Financial Times.

The article states the ‘Social networks are often said to be about giving power to the people, “democratising the web”, and so on. The implication is that they take power away from traditional suppliers of content on the web, including businesses.’

Networks are set up to help people to communicate with each other. How can they help, or hinder, with the recruitment process?

Dow is planning to launch a series of private networks at the end of this year. Called Dow Connect “It’s a way for us to reach out to people who have worked with Dow, to have regular dialogue with them, and to recruit some of them back to Dow,” says Julie Fasone Holder, vice president in human resources. The reasoning behind this move is very simple. Ex-employees are a huge asset to a company. Even if they themselves don’t want to return to work for the company, they may well know of someone who would be suitable.

The idea of using private networks is still a reasonably new one. The majority of social networking is still done in the public arena using sites such as Facebook. The accountancy firm, Ernst and Young, uses Facebook extensively to recruit potential graduates from US colleges. The benefit to the company is obvious, but what does the candidate gain? Firstly they might secure a job without needing to trawl through a myriad of job advertisements; the company approaches them and invites them to a meeting. Secondly, the candidate can check out the company in advance, asking other Facebook members if Ernst and Young is a good company to work for.

What, if anything, is the downside to this new trend of social networking? Candidates should take a certain amount of care when inputting their personal information. It’s all well and good to post photos for your friends to see, but what would a potential employer think if all he saw was you drinking and partying every night? As we’ve written about before, there are serious risks to candidates: according to the Times, a survey of 600 British companies revealed that one in five had logged on to Facebook and other networking websites to vet potential employees.

And the downside for the employer? As with any site where the public are allowed to contribute, you could receive a bad write-up. It could be a disgruntled employee or a customer who has had a bad experience with the company in general. Or it could be internal communications viewed outside of their original context. As the fifth highest result on a Google search for ‘Ernst and Young’, this is a cringe-inducing example of an Ernst & Young Recruitment Days video posted on to YouTube. This clip ‘Oh Happy Day’ and the accompanying comments illustrate why HR and PR need to carefully monitor social media and “listen to the conversation.”

The traditional website is never going to go away, but like them or loathe them, social networking sites are here to stay. As our dependency on the Internet grows ever more each day, they could well end up being a major but incremental force in the recruitment industry – adding to the tools that already exist.

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