Consider social networking sites when making recruiting plans

Has your district added a social media sourcing specialist to your recruiting team yet? Some recruiting professionals are predicting the addition of a staff member dedicated to identifying and maintaining a presence on the most effective online recruiting sites to be the wave of the very near future.

On some sites, such as Education America  and LinkedIn , jobs can be posted directly to the site. On others, such as the employment section of Facebook , profiles can be set up to promote the district with a link to job postings on the district’s Web site. Districts can search Naymz  for prospective candidates. Candidates promote their skills, work history, and education, and the site rates them based on references and other qualifying factors.

Whether the district limits Internet sourcing to posting jobs on line, participates in blogs, or produces videos for YouTube, planning is required. The use of social networking sites to recruit talent and promote the district should be part of an overall recruiting plan. And getting started and maintaining the efforts can be time consuming.

A number of school districts in Texas are already using social networking sites to go after passive candidates by promoting the benefits of living and working in the district. But is this an effective way of recruiting teachers? It’s too early to tell. While a district may have data to determine the return on investment from posting jobs on Education America or LinkedIn, the impact of promoting the district through other social networking sites such as Facebook or by posting video on YouTube may be harder to measure.

“Googling” a candidate or using social networking sites as a screening tool is not recommended. While the information gathered may provide additional insight into the individual, you may also unintentionally learn things about a candidate that can’t be considered when hiring such as race, national origin, religion, age, or disability.