What goes through your mind when interviewing for a job? One question that I hear time and time again is, how do I know if I will fit in? What is the culture of the company or department? How do you answer that as an interviewer? Well, I can speak to it of course, but the best way is to give a candidate a tour during the interview? Provide a peer interview and Q&A? Absolutely! But what if we could also use that “tour” and those Q&A sessions as a part of our social recruiting arsenal to proactively recruit and source new talent? That’s where Periscope becomes a great tool to drive traffic to our jobs and source candidates proactively. Periscope lets you broadcast and explore the world through live video.
First, we have to figure out what our goals are going to be for using this tool. Let’s assume that we want to increase brand awareness as a top employer in the local community to source talent. But wait, why not also use it to reinvigorate our current workforce and generate excitement and awareness around our employee referral plan? I am greedy folks, and I want to squeeze this tool for everything it is worth! Let’s break down some steps in getting these goals accomplished.
Ask yourself what makes us, the company, department, and job, special or different? Periscope is an amazing way to get to know a company, peek into the culture and meet some of the employees who work there. Think about what makes your company culture unique and attractive to potential employees. Candidates want to know how their job fits into the company. Show them! Tour the department with Periscope. Are you having a company or team event? Use Periscope to highlight that and show people why it’s great to work with your team. Is Jennifer, a peer to this job an excellent example of success? Do an interview with her on Periscope. A peek into Jennifer’s world may be the tipping point for your next potential hire.
Ok, we are well on our way. Now, how do we use this tool with our current workforce? Let’s get creative and use Periscope to reinvigorate the employee referral program! We all know that the best way to source new candidates is from the successful employees we already have on staff. So how do we do that? I have seen more than my share of company-wide email reminders on any given topic. Consider showing the recruiting manager or CEO in a Periscope video talking about the referral bonus, what jobs are open and wrapping with a short but invigorating call for all hands-on deck.
Part two of the referral program via Periscope? What about highlighting an interview with someone who was recently awarded that bonus and be creative in showing how they used it? Did we hire their friend? Use a Periscope stream to show their first day. Was the bonus augmented with a spa gift card? Ask the winner to shoot a video celebrating or using it to pay for their spa day. I had a client where we implemented this approach and referrals jumped up markedly. People are competitive by nature. Let’s use that to our advantage to show the successes of real people in the company. Demonstrate that it is achievable, make it personal and the referrals will come.
Aside from Periscope being easy to use, all you need is the app, the best part of using it is that although the stream is real-time, you are also able to save the streams. This allows you to be able to further promote the company and amp up your sourcing efforts by sharing them on all your other social media recruiting efforts. Post them to LinkedIn, Twitter (Twitter also owns Periscope – and they now offer auto play rather than the old links to activate the stream) and Facebook pages and groups. You can also embed a stream in your recruiting emails to prospective candidates and bring those messages to life!
As you become more advanced in using Periscope and building your audience through scheduled sourcing and recruiting events, consider holding live “Ask Me Anything” sessions with the hiring manager or a person in the job you are recruiting for during the event. In each approach that you take, think ahead to how you can manage and evaluate your stats. Were you at ten views and now are at 50-60 per stream? Does candidate traffic increase to your job postings in the next 24, 48 or 72 hours after posting? What days and times work best for visibility to the candidates you want to reach? You want to be able to understand what success looks like and to do that; you need be able to measure it.
Are you using Periscope as part of your social media recruiting arsenal? Share your thoughts and ideas with us!