21 Social Media Recruiting Statistics You Need to Know

The way companies hire and recruit top talent has evolved, and it can be challenging for companies to stand out among better-known brands that catch candidates’ immediate interest.

Social media recruiting is a way to level the playing field though.

Social platforms give your company the opportunity to increase its visibility, expand its reach, and connect with qualified candidates.

Just think about it: 4.62 billion people use social media — that’s more than half the world’s population. And when it comes to recruiting, you need to go where the people are.

To see just how powerful social media can be for recruiting, let’s take a look at the stats on how it performs, as well as how employees outside of HR can amplify results.

 

The Social Media Recruiting Statistics That Matter

When it comes to social recruiting stats, there actually is not an overabundance of specific data like other areas of social media.

However, out of the research, I narrowed it down to these select few that I think really make the case of social media recruiting.

And even if you believe and focus on social media for hiring, these numbers can serve as more arsenal for what your company is currently doing.

• 79% of job applicants use social media in their job search. (Glassdoor)
• Job seekers rank social media and professional networks as the most useful job search resource compared with job boards, job ads, recruiting agencies, and recruiting events. (CareerArc)
• Recruiting via social media is growing with 84% of organizations using it currently and 9% planning to use it. (SHRM)
• At least 58% of U.S. consumers use social media to follow brands. (MarketingSherpa)
• 73% of millennials (18-34 age group) found their last position through a social media platform. (CareerProfiles)
• 80% of employers say social recruiting helps them find passive candidates. (Betterteam)
• 70% of hiring managers say they’ve successfully hired with social media. (Betterteam)
• More than 50% of college graduates use LinkedIn. (Apollo Technical)
• 40 million people look for jobs on LinkedIn weekly. (LinkedIn)
• 67% of employers use social media to research candidates. (The Harris Poll)

Social media can be used not only to bring awareness to your company, but also to host job listings, reach out to prospects, have others suggest people and tag you via social posts, and research candidates.

This has certainly changed the recruiting and hiring game.

 

Related: Kelly Services realized that the rules of how we market, recruit, and hire candidates evolved. Learn Why Kelly Services Got Its Recruiters Active On Social Media.

 

How Many Employers Use Social Media for Recruiting?

Social media recruiting isn’t some new trend. Today, 92% of companies use it to attract and hire the best people.

Here’s a look at the industries that rely on it the most:

Marketing	86%
Hospitality	80%
Management Consulting	79%
Retail	75%
Information Technology	71%

And companies of all sizes engage in social media recruiting to ensure they’re hiring the best. Here’s how social recruiting usage breaks down by company size:

• 52% of companies with 49 or fewer employees use it.
• 90% of companies with 50-250 employees use it.
• 97% of companies with more than 250 employees use it.

 

How Employees Can Amplify Social Recruiting

Now that you understand the “why” and “how” stats of social recruiting, you might wonder how to amplify your social hiring results. Your people are the answer.

Below are some interesting social media statistics as it relates to employees getting social.

• Job seekers rank current employees as the most trusted source for information about a company. (CareerArc)
• 98% of employees use at least one social media site for personal use, of which 50% already post about their company. (Weber Shandwick)
• When asked which employee-shared content consumers found most relevant, recruiting rose to the top, with 30% of consumers find job posting useful. (EveryoneSocial)
• 65% of people are open to hearing about a job opportunity from a personal connection in their social network. (Monster)
• 92% of people trust recommendations that they get from friends and family over any other kind of marketing, promotion or advertising. (Nielsen)
• Employee referrals have the highest applicant-to-hire conversion rate. While only 7% of applicants come via employee referrals, they account for 40% of all new hire hires. (Jobvite)
• 47% of referral hires have greater job satisfaction and stay longer at companies. (Jobvite)
• Socially engaged employees are more optimistic, inspired, connected, and tenured. (Altimeter Group)

The online referral or “word-of-mouth” aspect is huge in helping attract talent. It also can save your company a ton of money presently and in the future.

How? Because replacing an employee requires numerous expenditures, such as job ads, job boards, events, and turnover costs, as well as replacing or hiring an external consultant.

• As stated in a study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, hiring an employee in a company with 0-500 people costs an average of $7,645.
• Another research study by SHRM states that it takes up to 50-60% of an employee’s annual salary to find a direct replacement for an employee who has left.

Much of these costs can be avoided though, by using social recruiting and allowing employees to amplify your hiring messages with their social networks.

 

Related: Atkins Global identified a need to enable its recruiters to be social and attract new talent by sharing branded and industry content. See how this took its social media recruiting efforts to the next level.

 

EveryoneSocial is Key to Social Recruiting

Hopefully the above gave you some good insight into why social recruiting is so valuable today — and will continue to be so.

These were only a snippet of social media recruiting statistics, but the ones that should really resonate with you and your company.

It’s also important to consider how your workforce outside of HR can have a big impact on attracting top talent and career interest.

 

Interested in amplifying social media recruiting and making it easy for employees to get more involved? Learn how EveryoneSocial’s employee influencer platform can help.