2013 Recruitment Technology Trends—Social Media & Talent Communities

This new year of 2013 will have a lot to offer for the recruiting world and, here at Recruiter.com, we’d like to give you a heads up on what’s to come. We’ve compiled the expertise and insight from some of the industry’s leading and most knowledgeable experts to give our readers an exclusive look at the current and upcoming trends in recruitment technology. From CEOs and VPs of HR and recruiting startups to HR technology consultants and business writers, this insight from the field’s best is sure to help jumpstart your recruiting success in 2013.

Take a look at the latest trends for social media and talent communities, offered by five experts in technology:

Building talent communities through social media

More and more of our customers are looking to leverage the power of social media to distribute their jobs directly from their applicant tracking systems to social platforms like Facebook and Twitter. In 2013, I expect this distribution of careers and job content to continue – and for employers to begin to spread their brand and culture more and more via social media, to complement their job distribution via social media. It’s not an “either/or” situation when it comes to job distribution to garner clicks versus culture and employment branding for recruiters , it’s a “both/and” scenario – and HR Directors and VPs of Talent see that value, and will continue to focus on job distribution and branding even more in 2013 to build talent communities and distribute their jobs throughout social media.

Yair Riemer, VP of Global Marketing, TweetMyJobs Internships.com, The Social Exceleration Network

2013 will be more visual

In 2012, visual media became a much more important part of the digital conversation with the rise of mostly visual social sharing communities like Pinterest and Tumblr. This social technology trend looks to continue in 2013. When it comes to HR technology, the importance of visuals will increase.

2013 will be more community-oriented

The rise of social media shows just how essential community is in every aspect of our lives, even when it comes to technology. Using talent pools and social media recruiting will continue to dominate the technology marketplace in 2013. New tools helping job seekers and employers connect socially will make it easier for companies to build up their pipelines of talented candidates for current and future positions.

Josh Tolan, CEO of Spark Hire

Smart social recruiting

Certainly in our space we’re seeing a major trend of treating social recruiting and employee referrals as a serious source of hire, in terms of reducing reliance on the solutions provided by ATS’s, and a deep understanding that this area warrants its own attention.

The typical ATS solution for social recruiting and referrals is a “post a job on a wall” button. That doesn’t make sense at all. These buttons aren’t used by employees, and when they are, posts quickly disappear in the flood of other posts.

Smart social recruiting leverages that data in social networks, personalized messaging, gamification and automation, in ways that are deliberate, targeted and non spammy.

Ziv Eliraz, Founder CEO, Zao.com

Talent communities will create a social renaissance at the corporate career site

Career sites will be transformed into active talent communities as employers learn to connect with top talent on the candidate’s terms. This includes: one-click applies, remote video interviewing capabilities, opportunities for two-way communication, social referrals, and more. The best talent expects respect, transparency and ease as they make critical career decisions. Only those employers that deliver an outstanding candidate experience at the career website will capture the best talent.

Matt Hendrickson, Founder CEO, Ascendify

More emphasis on social, not just through LinkedIn but as other major social networks move more into this space

It is no secret that LinkedIn has had a meteoric rise to prominence in the job space, but the importance of social tools is becoming apparent across more avenues. Facebook recently launched a job search tool that aggregates jobs from external sites and adds a social layer. Twitter has long been a place to connect with people in your industry and this channel will become more important as traditional job search methods lose their appeal. Expect to see traditional job boards partner with existing social networks or develop their own social tools (e.g. ratings, recommendations, social connections to the company, etc.) to complement their current offering. As most career coaches will tell you, it is just as much about who you know as what you know, and these social elements enable job seekers to build their network in a targeted manner.

Ben Wise, Co-Founder, SpringTern.com

Interested to learn what else is in store for recruitment technology in 2013? Stay tuned for our next article in this exclusive 2013 recruiting tech trends series.