Social media a mixed blessing for recruiters

As usage of social media grows, it opens up more opportunities for companies to use the likes of Facebook and Twitter to identify candidates who may be able to fill vacancies.

German banking group Deutsche Bank has decided to recruit the best graduates by using social media rather than traditional methods.

Germany's biggest bank now spend time monitoring sites such as Twitter and Linked In to find the right candidate for a career in finance among promising millennials, the generation now coming through universities who have grown up in the digital age.

It launched a programme late last year to monitor the online activity of university students to identify those who might be a good fit but would not apply through traditional channels such as on-campus recruitment drives.

In the first two weeks they identified 250 people with potential, who were then encouraged to take part in the bank's UK graduate recruitment programme.

With 317 million users on Twitter and 450 million Linked In users I don't blame the banking giant for taking this route.

However, social media does not always tell a recruiter everything they need to know to make an informed decision.

The person you identify may be over sharing. It is easy for people on social media to exaggerate what they do for a living, or how exciting their personal life is.

It is very easy to talk yourself up on social media but it is equally as easy to talk yourself down. Just because someone isn't posting about their achievements at work every five minutes does not mean they are climbing the ladder in their business.

So if you are recruiting via social media you may overlook someone due to their lack of online activity, which is why traditional methods, such as recruitment agencies, are always best practice.

Star Employment Services is part of the Midland News Association, publisher of the Express & Star/Shropshire Star. Call 01902 319333 or go to www.staremploymentservices.co.uk