The use of digital recruitment is at an all time high, rising to an astounding 94% of recruiters using digital platforms to hire candidates over the last six years. With more of us looking to travel the world and work than ever, a quick online search can help you find those dream IT jobs in Melbourne, all in a nano second. A whopping 30% of all Google searches are employment related.

A changing landscape

As technology changes, online tools and software develop, the world of recruiting shifts dramatically, meaning that the job application process - including interviews - can now be completed online. But to what extent is there evidence of the changing recruitment industry for both recruiting companies and job candidates online, and most importantly, is digital recruitment more successful in finding the right candidate for a job?

The mobile job seeker

As online recruitment is becoming easier to use and much more accessible, it is no surprise that we go to digital before applying to companies directly. Despite only 27% of digital job applications being able to be completed using a mobile device, 34% of us have used our mobile devices to search for a job on the move.  

Many large companies have their own recruitment websites, including renowned retail stores Next and Topshop, to successful supermarket businesses Aldi and Asda, to the public services such as the police - all recognised as being superstars in the recruitment industry.

But the biggest recent increases in the use of digital recruitment that can be evaluated is within the use and surprising dominance of social media platforms in today’s recruitment trends.

Recruiting and social media platforms

New studies have found many shocking statistics on how social media platforms such as LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook are taking over the recruitment workforce.

• A study conducted in Aberdeen found that an outstanding 73% of 18-24 year olds found their last job online through a social network.

• LinkedIn is the most popular social networking site used for recruitment purposes with 94% of recruiters maintaining profiles, in comparison to 66% on Facebook and 54% on Twitter.

• Although 94% of recruiters have LinkedIn profiles, only 36% of job candidates have their own profiles.

So are there any benefits of using these social media platforms for recruitment? The answer is yes, and the statistics remain impressive.

• 73% of job applications have been successfully filled through the uses of social media.

• 42% of companies say that the quality of their candidates has improved.

• 20% of companies say that it takes less time to hire their candidates when using social media.

• 31% of companies that used social media to recruit saw an increase of employee referrals.

• 65% of companies that used social media to recruit compensate employees for referrals.

Evidently, recruiting through social networking platforms and online is a fantastic way to find the perfect candidate for a job, and is predicted that more and more employers will begin to use digital recruitment to hire their staff, possibly eliminating non-digital recruitment processes all together.