A modern HR approach is a social one

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Modernizing your workforce starts with modernizing your HR approach.

In today’s labour market, successful truck fleets and logistics companies know that staying abreast of the issues will help them stay ahead of the competition. Follow Trucking HR Canada’s 10 part “Modernizing Your HR Approach” blog series as we navigate emerging trends and share tips for finding, hiring, and retaining the talent you need.

In a tight labour market it’s becoming more important to use all possible recruitment tools to attract talent. As the baby-boomer generation heads towards retirement, and we seek to fill the gap they create, social media will become an even more important tool and staying on top of these trends can help companies tremendously in their recruitment efforts.

Who uses social media?

A report by Abacus Data, found that close to 75% of respondents from a national survey had a Facebook account. When you break it down by generations the numbers show a gap between generations but it’s not as pronounced as one might think. While over 90% of millennials have a Facebook account, well over half of adults 60 and up do as well.

However, the big difference between these groups was HOW they are using it. The regularity of use varies considerably between generations. According to research from Abacus Data, 50% of millennials check their Facebook accounts multiple times a day, whereas regular use for older generations were considerably lower, with 67% of 30-44 year olds, 58% of 45-59 year olds, and 50% of those 60 and over checking at least daily.

Why use social media as a recruitment tool?

Its clear that social media plays a large role in our lives, and especially in the lives of the millennial generation, who are the largest cohort in the Canadian labour force. Adopting recruitment practices that reach this group is becoming crucial in order to compete.

Your company’s online presence says something about your company culture. It can give potential candidates a look into what it would be like to work for your company. That’s why it is so important that you make sure your social media tells the right story. With the right content, you can influence future candidates’ perceptions and turn curious visitors into potential applicants.

Using social media

 Facebook

As we know, Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms. But Facebook is not just for sharing what you ate for breakfast. People use Facebook to connect with friends and co-workers, get their news, read reviews of local restaurants, and yes, check out potential future employers.

A great tip from the Foundry by Monster is to make sure you integrate the right mix of content between company information, industry insights and job ads to make the most of your Facebook page.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn has over 500 million members and remains the number one social media option for recruiters because it’s designed for them. Ensure your LinkedIn company page shows who you are by highlighting your culture, mission and values in a professional and approachable manner. You will also want to make sure it is full of relevant keywords which will help prospective employees find you. Finally, make sure you have employees connect to your page so any job opportunities can be shared throughout their LI network.

Twitter

Twitter offers the huge advantage of being an open platform where you can easily contact and build relationships with people. It also brings several challenges and expressing your corporate culture in 280 characters is one of them (but adding rich pictures, links and videos should do the trick).

 Instagram

Instagram enables you to visually convey your company culture. Photos or videos of people at work, company celebrations, technology etc. let job-seekers look behind the scenes and become interested to learn more about working for you.

To wrap it all up, creating rich social media content, including photos and video, across your chosen platforms, can give potential candidates a taste of what working for you is like, and in today’s world, that transparency is important. In a time when you can pretty well google anything, take the opportunity on social media to tell the story yourself.

 

 

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Bridget O’Shaughnessy is the Marketing and Communications Manager at Trucking HR Canada, a national not-for-profit organization dedicated to addressing the human resources challenges and opportunities in the trucking and logistics sector. As a respected leader in HR, Trucking HR Canada works with various associations, government departments and industry professionals to ensure employers have the skilled workforce needed for today and in the future.


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