Ryan St. Germaine

Tweeting to recruit: What’s your strategy?

August 29
Jobcast Careers
This next point might sound obvious, but trust me, it is often forgotten. Social media is social! Your account should not only be for sharing information, but also for engaging with social networks and responding to queries. For recruitment and HR accounts, open a window into your company by sharing information about company events, industry information, news events and corporate videos or blogs. Twitter connects you to potential candidates in real time.  This allows you to gain a broader perspective of the candidate, understanding their likes and dislikes, media patterns, interests and accomplishments that cannot be conveyed in a standard resume. It also allows you to source passive candidates.So what are some of ……Read More

Tweeting to recruit: Improving your profile

August 22
Jobcast Careers
Who are you trying to reach on Twitter? Here are some things to consider to make your profile stand out. Like Facebook, Twitter only allows one account per email address. This is easily sidestepped by using different email addresses. You may want a Twitter account for personal use as well as account for the company. Some larger companies may also have multiple accounts to address specific issues. An example is Telus, which has @TELUSsupport, @TELUSCommunity, @TELUSHealth and @TELUSBusiness, among others. This is especially important for consumer products or services as there is potential merit for separate accounts dealing with customer service, marketing, media relations and recruitment to avoid confu……Read More

Google+ and recruitment: Revolution or simply a lot of hype?

August 16
Jobcast Careers
Google+ has come on the social media scene with avengeance. While it took Facebook three years to hit 25 million users, Google+ completed the same task in just over a month. While it can be argued that other social media sites forged the way, truth is that the public has responded very favourably to the new offering.So why all the hype?Google+ is the best of all social media worlds. It combines the most useful parts of various sites, plus ups the ante with a few more tricks. It allows you to keep your social and professional life separate and it combines email, online search and social media in one. But how can hiring managers use it for recruiting?Circles: When you add people to your contacts on Google+, you will be f……Read More

Tweeting to recruit: Getting started

August 15
Jobcast Careers
About TwitterFounded in 2006 after a day-long brainstorming session, Twitter is a social networking and microblogging site where users share “tweets” — 140 (or less) character posts where brevity is both a virtue and a necessity. This can also be achieved by embedding links in the post, directing readers to other sites containing a longer article, blog, photo or video of interest. The site currently has more than 200 million users, with 200 million tweets each day. That’s 2300 tweets sent each second!Getting Started:Like most social networking sites, it is important to sit back and monitor the conversation before jumping in. Twitter has its own social norms and conventions and before using it to recruit, it is important to bec……Read More

To recommend or not to recommend, that is the question?

August 8
Jobcast Careers
What are some of the legal implications of having employees recommend people through social media sites? Thinking of offering a recommendation on LinkedIn? Think again. If your organization is like many others in Canada, you may be in breach of corporate policy. Legal departments are struggling to keep up with the advent of social media and the new freedom employees have to share information online. This may include competitive or sensitive information, personal sentiments, defamatory statements and, recommendations of course.Prior to online communities, references were typically limited to the human resources department or line managers who offered tactically-worded statements that were mindful of pro……Read More

Facebook recruitment strategy: How to create one

August 2
Jobcast Careers
Convinced that leveraging Facebook to engage with potential candidates is right for your company? Consider creating a strategy to ensure you are getting the most out of your time and financial commitment. Consider this 5 step approach:Objective. What is the purpose of your account and/or Like page? Is it to build brand awareness, enhance your employer brand, establish leads to build an email list, drive traffic to your recruitment page, engage your community or a combination of the above? Perhaps you are looking to leverage your solid consumer brand reputation to drive candidate flow. Determining whether you will host a combined or separate recruitment and marketing page will be your first step.Design your so……Read More

Setting up your Facebook business or recruitment page

July 25
Jobcast Careers
Creating a Facebook Page or ‘Like’ page is easy. With 700 million registered users, having a Like page will allow you to connect with potential candidates or consumers while building your corporate and employer brand reputation. There is no limit to the number of Like pages available to an account, so it is important to consider whether you will manage separate accounts for marketing and recruitment functions, and also who will manage them. The rise of social media has created overlap between the communications and human resources departments, so determining who is responsible at the onset will help establish spheres of influence from the get go. In setting up your Facebook page, there are a few things to remem……Read More

Reference Checks...Traditional or 2.0?

July 15
Blog reference-checks-traditional-or-2-0
With all of the creative advancements in social media, hiring managers may be tempted to also use online networking sites for candidate references. The art of communication has taken a drastic turn, with peoples’ busy schedules resulting in more emails and fewer phone calls. Naturally, this affects all areas of the business world, including reference checks. But is using social media to find out information about a candidate’s background a good idea? Legalities aside, let’s look at some of the more practical pros and cons.ProsUnbiased information. The best feature of using social media to access references is the potential for reaching former colleagues and superiors not provided on a candidates’ submitted reference list. N……Read More

How technology is changing the face of recruitment

July 5
Blog how-technology-is-changing-the-face-of-recruitment
What would recruitment be without technology? Rewind fifteen years and we were accepting faxed and mailed resumes, posting job adverts in the paper, filing thousands of applications and manually calling applicants. Fast forward to 2011 and the rules of the game have dramatically changed for both in-house and agency recruiters alike. Same for candidates. Once upon a time they were printing off copies of their resume (or typing them!) and doing whatever they could to get them in the hands of their targeted company. The internet has changed all of that! First came the job board to link candidates and hiring managers and then Web 2.0 took us even further. Today job seekers and recruiters alike just need to log on t……Read More