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Key Elements of Social Media Recruiting for Medical Professionals

• November 3, 2021
• 6 minute read

Social media recruiting has become an essential element of attracting new talent to job openings. Amid a 15-year high on talent shortages (69% of companies report talent shortages), social media has become a preferred method for employers and job seekers alike. For example, 81% of job seekers prefer to see and apply for job posts on Facebook, and 58% of recruiters found it best to use social media in hiring new job candidates. 

Employers are quickly jumping in on the recruitment trend because it’s offering such valuable benefits. Of the most important ones, social media recruitment benefits include:

• Attracting higher-quality candidates
• Increasing job visibility
• Reducing hiring costs
• Engaging with potential hires
• Shortening the amount of time job seekers will need to take to vet out you and your open position

Aside from the excellent recruitment traits, you will need a good strategy. So, before getting started, here’s everything you will need to know and implement to succeed in your social media recruiting.

What Labor Laws Should You Know?

Recruiting talent on social media can be an excellent way to reach the right hires with your message. First, however, you will want to get familiar with the labor laws behind such a strategy—particularly the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). Failing to adhere to them can lead to a maximum penalty of $576 for each incident. 

The EEOC laws regarding recruitment on social media that HR teams should be aware of so as not to violate them: 

• Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII): discrimination against a person based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
• The Pregnancy Discrimination Act: discrimination against a woman because of pregnancy, childbirth, or a medical condition related to pregnancy or childbirth.
• Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA): discrimination against a person with a disability.
• The Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA): discrimination against age. 
• Title II of The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 (GINA): discrimination against employees or applicants because of genetic information. 

It is important to note that all EEOC laws have officially been extended to social media, which means employers cannot discriminate against current or potential employees based on their social media content. So, for example, an employer cannot go on Twitter, Instagram, or any social media platform to target job postings based on a candidate’s race, age, sex, etc. 

Tips for Successful Social Media Recruiting  

Aside from complying with EEOC discrimination laws regarding your recruiting methods on social media, there are some great strategies you can implement to ensure your recruitment on social media is thriving. 

Consistent Branding across all Social Channels  

Consistent branding is essential for recruitment for the same reasons your brand must be consistent across all marketing channels for consumers. How you portray yourself to the public determines the type of employees and consumers who will become passionate about your brand and product/services. 

Any miscommunications or contradictions in your messaging can sway people to stay away from you because they’re unsure where you stand and what you stand for. Consistent branding across all your social channels does several things for attracting potential hires:

• Increases trust because they know what to expect from you
• It gives your brand more transparency (96% of job seekers say that it’s essential to work for a company that embraces transparency) 
• Highlights your values (channels don’t feature contradicting information)
• Improve brand and job opening awareness (takes 5 to 7 impressions to elicit recall/recognition).  

Focus on Channels where your Candidates Spend their Time

Focusing on channels that are only relevant to your candidates and ultimately where they spend most of their time will benefit you in two significant ways:

1. Increase the quality of your candidates
2. Reduce the frequency of unqualified applicants 

When you’re on channels that aren’t relevant to your ideal candidates, then you risk missing out on top talent that could’ve been interested in your position. You also risk receiving more unqualified applicants because they’ll notice a lack of responses and take the opportunity to throw their hat in the ring, despite not meeting your requirements. 

Being on social channels that your ideal candidate uses increases the quality of your applicants because you’re reaching them where they frequent. For example, they may not have even known they were open to switching companies until they saw your opening and considered it. 

Engage with Candidates to Foster Relationships  

Relationships are essential between brands and people in every aspect of a business. Engaging with employees and potential hires on social media can foster relationships that lead to the perfect candidates for current open positions and even future ones. 

People who enjoy engaging with you on social media are more likely to fit into your workplace, be satisfied with you and their position, and stay with the company for the remainder of their career (increasing employee retention!).  

Ways you can excite responses and engagement with employees/potential hires are by:

• Posting employee spotlights, videos, and fun facts.
• Provide fun surveys and ask insightful questions.
• Always like and respond to comments, including posts you’re tagged in. 

Make it Easy for Candidates to Apply  

Making the application process difficult for job seekers to complete is a sure-fire way to limit the number of results your position receives. More often than not, job seekers are filling out a handful or more of applications at a time and will move on to another one if one takes too long to complete. 

One-in-five candidates give less than 10 minutes to a job application (20%) or two to three pages on a mobile device (21%). Otherwise, they drop off. 

Make it easy for candidates to apply by:

• Keeping it short and sweet
• Be mobile-friendly (Pew Research found that 28% of Americans, and half of the young adults, have used a smartphone during a job search, and 41% have used their mobile phone in some aspect of a job search) 
• Highlight job requirements, qualifications, and benefits (bullets are helpful) 

Access a Talent Pipeline of Qualified Candidates with VISTA  

Even with social media, it can be very challenging to access and reach suitable candidates for your openings. This challenge has intensified over the last couple of years and is expected to worsen in the next decade. However, you can work with VISTA to overcome these common recruitment challenges. VISTA already has a talent pipeline in place with qualified candidates ready to fill your open positions. In the meantime, follow our blog for more recruitment advice.