How feds can put the hashtag in hiring
New report from the Partnership for Public Service offers best practices for using social media when recruiting for government jobs.
What: A report from LinkedIn and the Partnership for Public Service titled "#Now Hiring: The Role of Social Media in Agency Recruiting," released Aug. 27.
Why: The report outlines best practices for using social media in the hiring process, based on interviews with top managers at the Office of Personnel Management and the Office of Government Ethics, as well as social media and human resources pros.
The report's authors advise agencies to actively engage with users on social media to tell their story on a daily basis and grow their audience. When it comes time to advertise an open position, agencies should post to USAJobs first, but then use their social media audience to reach talent wherever it may be.
The report echoes NASA's advice to target platforms that serve an agency's needs rather than blindly hopping onto each new social media tool.
The authors warn agencies, however, that they must not let social media make the hiring process less fair. For instance, they must not use demographic information on social media to make assumptions about candidates, and though they can inform job seekers of open positions, they cannot tell them how to get hired.
Verbatim: "Create a constant presence on social media. Agencies are in a better position to attract top talent for open positions if they maintain the attention of potential candidates even when the agency is not hiring."
Full report: http://ourpublicservice.org