July 20, 2011: Nearly 90% of companies are planning to use social networks to find job candidates, according to a new survey, up from 83% a year ago.
- 55% will increase their budgets for social recruiting; referrals, corporate career sites and direct sourcing are other top categories for increased investment.
- Referrals, direct sourcing and social networks are the top rated external sources for quality candidates.
- Only 16% will spend more on job boards and a third of respondents plan to spend less on job boards, third party recruiters and search firms.
- LinkedIn has led in recruiting usage each year and now almost all of those surveyed (87%) use the professional network, up from 78% last year.
- Recruiting usage of other major networks stayed fairly steady with 55% using Facebook and 47% using Twitter.
- But now, most (64%) have expanded their social recruiting programs to two or more social media channels; and 40% use all three top networks – LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
- 77% of survey respondents expect increased competition for talent.
- Nearly 2/3 of companies intend to recruit from competitors in the year ahead.
- 1/3 expect the average new employee to stay 2 years or less.
- Among companies anticipating increased hiring this year, 95% now use or plan to start using social recruiting.
The Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey 2011 was conducted online between May and June 2011; over 800 people U.S. respondents completed the survey. You can read and download full results here.
