Since the birth of social media, recruiters have had more choice than ever when it comes to picking the candidates they want to connect with. In just a few clicks, you can pull up a handful of CVs and begin targeting the best matches for the job you’re pushing. So why are many candidates still being contacted about vacancies that are completely irrelevant to their industry?

Where Are Recruiters Going Wrong?

An impressive 59% of recruiters say they’ve hired ‘quality candidates’ on the social networking site LinkedIn, which, at a glance, seems like a dream scenario. However, only 21% of candidates thought they’d discovered the most suitable job for their skill set on social media, highlighting a discrepancy in the way social recruitment is handled. Whilst recruiters are clearly targeting qualified online candidates, they aren’t necessarily targeting the right ones. In fact, some recruitment agencies are barely considering the fields and interests of those they contact and are simply matching keywords in profiles to the ones in their databases. This could be down to high workloads and strict time constraints but is also due, in part, to a failure to understand candidate preferences.

Where Are Candidates Going Wrong?

On the other hand, candidates aren’t helping themselves by providing inaccurate or incomplete professional profiles. One reason you could still be receiving incompatible job offers is that you are only attracting the attention of recruiters like the ones outlined above. These are the kind who only skim read CVs and don’t pay full attention to the details contained in them. As they are only concentrated on optimised keywords, they don’t always hit the nail on the head when it comes to job matching. If your CV contains any of these keywords, then there is a chance you will be contacted about the vacancy. In order to avoid this, you need to make sure your profile is set up to attract the right kind of recruiter.

Bridging The Recruitment Gap

The first natural step in bringing more cohesion to the social recruitment process should be changing the way both candidates and recruiters approach it. Currently, there just aren’t enough recruiters targeting the right kind of job seekers and those that are, are struggling to find quality candidates to fill their quota. By encouraging both hiring managers and candidates to update the way they tackle recruitment, we could find ourselves at a point where most people are discovering their ideal job opportunity.

For starters, recruiting agencies need to strike a balance between finding matches and hiring genuine talent. With 51% of workers either actively seeking or open to discussing a new job offer, there is a large pool of workers that needs to be sifted through and scrutinised. Right now, too many passive candidates are being overlooked because they aren’t appearing in search algorithms or rankings. By lengthening the recruitment process, recruiters can begin to actually network with the people they are hiring.

Although this may seem unfeasible in such a high-pressure market, statistics show that only 40% of people are satisfied with their job and over 90% of millennials don’t expect to stay tied down to one job for more than three years. To entice workers to stay longer, there needs to be an emphasis on finding them jobs with a culture to match their personality and ability. This could mean branching out into other forms of recruitment, such as job board listings and employee referrals to ensure the net is cast as wide as possible.

At the same time, candidates need to be willing to change the way they operate too. Remaining passive is fine, but only if you are still sending out the right signals. Social media profiles should be well written, with a strong focus on the type of job you are after. Almost all recruiters use some form of SEO ranking to find your CV, so you need to be aware of the kind of things they are looking for. Do some research -- look at the way successful candidates have presented their profiles and try and copy their style. Once candidates and recruiters have tapped into the same wavelength, there will be a much higher chance of job opportunities working out for both parties.

Since the birth of social media, recruiters have had more choice than ever when it comes to picking the candidates they want to connect with. In just a few clicks, you can pull up a handful of CVs and begin targeting the best matches for the job you’re pushing. So why are many candidates still being contacted about vacancies that are completely irrelevant to their industry?

Where Are Recruiters Going Wrong?

An impressive 59% of recruiters say they’ve hired ‘quality candidates’ on the social networking site LinkedIn, which, at a glance, seems like a dream scenario. However, only 21% of candidates thought they’d discovered the most suitable job for their skill set on social media, highlighting a discrepancy in the way social recruitment is handled. Whilst recruiters are clearly targeting qualified online candidates, they aren’t necessarily targeting the right ones. In fact, some recruitment agencies are barely considering the fields and interests of those they contact and are simply matching keywords in profiles to the ones in their databases. This could be down to high workloads and strict time constraints but is also due, in part, to a failure to understand candidate preferences.

Where Are Candidates Going Wrong?

On the other hand, candidates aren’t helping themselves by providing inaccurate or incomplete professional profiles. One reason you could still be receiving incompatible job offers is that you are only attracting the attention of recruiters like the ones outlined above. These are the kind who only skim read CVs and don’t pay full attention to the details contained in them. As they are only concentrated on optimised keywords, they don’t always hit the nail on the head when it comes to job matching. If your CV contains any of these keywords, then there is a chance you will be contacted about the vacancy. In order to avoid this, you need to make sure your profile is set up to attract the right kind of recruiter.

Bridging The Recruitment Gap

The first natural step in bringing more cohesion to the social recruitment process should be changing the way both candidates and recruiters approach it. Currently, there just aren’t enough recruiters targeting the right kind of job seekers and those that are, are struggling to find quality candidates to fill their quota. By encouraging both hiring managers and candidates to update the way they tackle recruitment, we could find ourselves at a point where most people are discovering their ideal job opportunity.

For starters, recruiting agencies need to strike a balance between finding matches and hiring genuine talent. With 51% of workers either actively seeking or open to discussing a new job offer, there is a large pool of workers that needs to be sifted through and scrutinised. Right now, too many passive candidates are being overlooked because they aren’t appearing in search algorithms or rankings. By lengthening the recruitment process, recruiters can begin to actually network with the people they are hiring.

Although this may seem unfeasible in such a high-pressure market, statistics show that only 40% of people are satisfied with their job and over 90% of millennials don’t expect to stay tied down to one job for more than three years. To entice workers to stay longer, there needs to be an emphasis on finding them jobs with a culture to match their personality and ability. This could mean branching out into other forms of recruitment, such as job board listings and employee referrals to ensure the net is cast as wide as possible.

At the same time, candidates need to be willing to change the way they operate too. Remaining passive is fine, but only if you are still sending out the right signals. Social media profiles should be well written, with a strong focus on the type of job you are after. Almost all recruiters use some form of SEO ranking to find your CV, so you need to be aware of the kind of things they are looking for. Do some research -- look at the way successful candidates have presented their profiles and try and copy their style. Once candidates and recruiters have tapped into the same wavelength, there will be a much higher chance of job opportunities working out for both parties.