Matching Social Community Members with Job Openings – A Future Look

LinkedIn dominates social media sites as a community source for recruiters to mine for potential candidates for openings. Facebook and Twitter are next but are significantly further behind. The reason for this dominance is the amount of information available on community members coupled with a reasonably efficient search capability to find individuals with certain attributes and background.

However, much of this information is self-report and prone to self-promotion. There is limited information that has been has been validated. The job skill endorsement function, in concept, would be a way to confirm skill levels based on others inputs. However, most people view the endorsements as evidence of quid pro quo popularity and put little faith in them. Personal recommendations have slightly more validation, but again, people recognize that many of them are solicited to beef up one’s profile.

The Evolution of Talent Profiles

I believe that the talent profiles for social community members are going to undergo a rapid evolution. This will be driven by the need for superior information that leads to better quality sourcing and pre-interview vetting. Talent profiles are going to be improved to include verifiable personal information including objective norm-based assessment information. Video interviews are also likely to be part of the talent profile. Developmental activities and accomplishments will be part of the qualitative information that will be available.

Job profiles and information concerning openings will also evolve. In order to match talent profiles to job profiles, the two profiles must contain the same detail in information. Comprehensive job and talent profiles will allow automated matching algorithms to be developed that quickly and effectively identify individuals in a social community that are a good match for a given job opening. Semantic matching will be replaced by scientific matching. The result will be increased efficiency and effectiveness of the hiring process.

The social community sites that rise in prominence for recruiting in the future will not likely be devoted solely for matching community members to job openings. This will simply be a valuable extra advantage of social membership. Future social media sites will deliver value beyond professional networking. I have written previously about the potential of a social media site devoted to personal development. View other relevant blog articles we have written on this subject, The Way of the Future: Enterprise Social Collaboration/Learning Networks and Introducing a New Development Concept – Development Circles.

OMNIview and the Upcoming Selection and Development Revolution

The world of social media is changing fast and we are only at the beginning of the trend lines. It will continue to shape how we interact with the world around us. The world of work will be an important part of its influence.

OMNIview is excited about being part of this revolution. Contact us to learn more about how we plan to use social media to improve selection and development processes.

Bonus article! ERE.net’s Talent Management Lessons from the Super Bowl to Corporate Leaders.