Case Study: Shifting to a Social Media Approach

Jeff Bloom, Chief Talent Officer of estate.ly, was facing a challenge. For the first time in twenty years, they had fallen off Fortunes Best Companies to Work For. In addition, his workforce was aging, and he was having a hard time attracting newer and younger talent, especially millennials and Gen Z. But he was frustrated. He just could not figure out how to reach this new generation and to maintain and enhance the great workplace that estate.ly was known for. Things were falling apart, and he knew it.

Jeff picked up his cell and called Tanya, the companys Chief Brand Officer, told her about his concerns, and tried to schedule a meeting. Tanya thought to herself, Finally, hes open to listening about how social media can support HR more fully! But she didnt say that out loud. Instead, she replied, From everything you just told me, I dont believe things are as bad as you think. From what Im hearing, I think the biggest issue we may be facing is that we arent branding our organization and our people effectively to younger employees. Would you be comfortable if I bring three or four of my more recently hired employees to the meeting? Jeff indicated that would be fine, and they scheduled a meeting for the next week.

The Meeting

Jeff was at a loss to what to do, but Tanya had a plan. She started the meeting by introducing the newly hired employees, Nadia and Rachel. Tanya then discussed how estate.ly was using social media to market properties, to engage customers, and to develop relationships. We can do the same for HR. Social media is a great tool for reaching potential employees, connecting current employees, and extending the corporate brand. She recommended the following:

• Develop a corporate Facebook careers page to advertise career events, provide advice on getting a job, tell people about estate.ly and what its like to work for us. And we can link to job openings directly from here. Nadia quickly pointed out that Facebook is not really as popular with my generation, Gen Z. What other tools are you thinking about?
• Use LinkedIn to build professional relationships and networks. LinkedIn is an excellent tool for reaching professionals in our industry. We already have a large network of clients on LinkedIn, and because LinkedIn is designed to link business professionals, we can tell them our culture and what it is like to work for us. LinkedIn will probably connect us to a different audience than Facebook.
• Twitter is a great way to advertise and communicate our culture and value. We can share our latest job openings here and can live tweet any events that prospective employees might find interesting.
• Instagram provides an excellent way of presenting visuals about our core values, our culture, and our company. Rachel chimed in, Its true: a picture can be worth a thousand words, and besides, Im a lot more likely to pay attention to Instagram than Facebook.
• Finally, You Tube is a great place for employee testimonials regarding what it is like to work for estate.ly. We could even present a day in the life of an employee. This can really enhance the message or brand we want to communicate to those who may work for us.

Tanya finished, by noting these are just some of the tools were using today. Who knows what will come next? We need to regularly assess our tools and make changes as needed. In addition, in China, were using a whole different set of tools, but thats a conversation for another day.

The Future

To put it mildly, Jeff was shocked at the potential for social media. He still wasnt completely sure how to use each of these tools, but he could clearly see the promise of using them in recruitment. He even could see how these tools could help connect our current employees. But could it help him make better employee hiring decisions? What were the risks of using social media? Lots of questions arose, but finally he had direction and an idea of how to rebuild estate.lys brand. Hopefully, in a few more years, the company will be back on Fortunes Best Companies to Work For list.

Questions:

1. What are some of the advantages and disadvantages to using social media tools in the recruitment process?
2. Given these pros and cons, what policies should estate.ly implement when using social media tools for recruitment?
3. How can a estate.ly enact policies that protect the rights of applicants while also ensuring that the company is protected from negligent hiring (Links to an external site)?
4. To what extent should a estate.ly use social media as a tool to screen candidates? Provide the strengths and weakness of your position.