Is your next candidate only a ‘like’ away?
Social media is an effective tool for attracting new employees, especially those among the millennial demographic. But, like most technologies, implementing them without a clear strategy can upend the productive partnership between marketing and HR.
Among healthcare professionals, Facebook and Instagram are the most-used applications. With 2 billion monthly users, Facebook grabs the bulk of the social media user stats and has added features for posting job positions and even interview scheduling. “Recruiters can use Facebook for sourcing, recruitment marketing and candidate engagement, run highly targeted ads based on locality, education, job title and interests and search through industry-specific groups for qualified talent,” notes an article published online by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM).
But launching a social media recruitment campaign means first making sure your organization’s messages align across its entire online presence, including the website, the job posting sites and even the personal LinkedIn pages of the CEO, HR director and other key administrators. In other words, interested candidates who see your post on one social media application will most likely do their homework by looking at the organization’s presence elsewhere online. Organizations that don’t have a strong online presence or appear disorganized in their online messaging may quickly fall off a good candidate’s radar.
An image really is worth 1,000 words as a way to show an organization’s culture and message. However, long-term and post-acute care (LTPAC) organizations face some special issues when it comes to using images on social media, including Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rules issued in 2016 on posting images depicting skilled nursing residents. Before using any images of residents in a social media campaign, HR personnel should confer with the Administrator or Director of Nursing, since a photo deemed inappropriate under the CMS memo—even if the resident has agreed to the photo—could result in an F-Tag citation.
“We see social media as a low-cost medium we can use to tell positive stories about the loving environments we create for our patients and residents,” says Lea Volpe, Vice President of Communications and Brand for PruittHealth, in an iAdvanceSeniorCare article. “But we also see it as a risk and have worked hard to ensure we have the policies and practices in place to train employees, monitor online content and address concerns and issues quickly and effectively.”
Tips for Leveraging Social Media for Recruitment
Show and tell: Combining images and text has the strongest appeal in social media. Just ensure that HR staff are trained in the CMS guidelines for image use, since once an image is posted, it’s difficult to eliminate it completely from the online world.
Celebrate activity: Tweet about your latest open house or fundraiser. Post a Facebook message about an employee’s recent award. Harvest every chance to show potential candidates that your organization is busy, involved in the local community and eager to celebrate employees who strive for excellence and quality.
Leverage keywords and hashtags: If your HR department isn’t an expert at social media hashtagging, consider hiring someone who is. Hashtags help govern who sees a posting on Twitter, so faulty tagging can mean your message won’t be seen by the candidate groups you seek.
Mine the Groups: Social media offers a stunning collection of topic-specific groups, so spend some time looking for groups that could include your next employees. While you’re at it, check out the social media feeds of key associations and nursing schools that include possible candidates. Post a message saying you’re hiring and capture the nuggets on why your organization would be a great place to work.
