Eric Yee
Head of Talent Solutions Hong Kong and Taiwan
Yee started off by mentioning that the challenge of hiring talent has been the challenge for hundreds of year and started off with a ‘Help Wanted’ sign – though he moved on to the wider question of whether we are really leveraging are social media? Asking the members of the audience, he demonstrated that while many people use social media in a personal capacity, in fact many companies lack a professional social media strategy.
Indeed he pointed to the differences between social media and professional social media: while quite often people share pictures of what they eat on Facebook, professional networks have different expectations. Most people are there to network and share knowledge, he explained.
So, how to start social recruiting? Yee boiled it down to five key points: Target Talent, Shape Perception, Build Trust, Build strong talent communities and sustain your message. Quite often, the talent HR look for will follow companies on LinkedIn to find out more about them and the website has the capacity to share that information and provide opportunities to comment.
Commenting on the results of LinkedIn’s recent research, Yee stated that in Hong Kong, a staggering 74% of people are passive talent and 83% of them are willing to talk to headhunters. While 56% of Hong Kong employees use social professional networks, Yee also pointed to the 50% of those who still feel word of mouth is a strong channel to find jobs. He tied this into LinkedIn’s strategy of using it as a platform for its users to share information and experiences from their company – a trend that many are already undertaking.
With that, he highlighted the importance of employer brand and the importance of people wanting to work for a company with a great reputation. LinkedIn provides the facilities for people and companies to share this and with an increased employer brand, it can actually cut the costs per hire by 50%. Equally, showing potential employees why you are approaching them and ensuring a positive interview experience are really important ways to enhance company brands, according to Yee.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
