Jobhop Jobhop's blog : Social Capital: What Does It Mean For The Employer?
How much Social Capital do you think a candidate has?
3,000 Followers on Twitter, 500 friends and family on Facebook, 1,000 subscribers on youtube, 1,000 followers on Pinterest, 500+ connections on Linkedin, plus the others.
An average Facebook user has 350 friends, an average 18 -25 year olf Facebook user has 650 friends.
Social capital is more these days, we’re not talking about a few neighbours, family members and a few mates from the gymn, their social capital could be potentially thousands of online connections.
Rewind to the point before you interview the applicant. How many people in their network had they excitedly told about their interview? How many of their connections wished them "Good luck"?
Forward wind to two weeks after the interview, friends ask “any news” answer comes back “no” Everyone starts talking about how bad your company is for not getting in touch with an answer or any feedback.
Your company is being discussed negatively on social media platforms where everyone else can and where it has the potential to go viral!
If you think “I don’t have time to get back to them” then think “them” are also your consumers & their network are also your consumers, it could affect your bottom line.
Networks are usually people bonding together with similar ideas, views, opinions, if one in that network gets angry then the others could also get angry and if they get angry about your brand, you’ve got problems.
A candidate who has good social capital could be great for your organisation. For example, a good recruitment process will leave the candidate with a positive experience that he/she can talk about even when they’re not offered the job. If the “not successful” are handled well then the company brand is still respected. Many years ago I was pipped at the post at a well known coffee company & I received a hamper of mini jars of coffee. I didn’t feel down about the experience it was handled really professionally with good feedback plus I was buzzing on caffeine for ages after! This was before Social Media, if it had been about I would have spread a really positive message about their recruitment process.
If your organisation embraces social, is transparent and has a good recruitment process then interviewing and employing someone with good social capital can be very beneficial.
Benefits of having an employee with good social capital.
- Brand ambassador: An employee with good social capital can help spread the news that your company is just super and fab to work for.
- Employee referrals: Your employee loves working at your company, you love your employee, you wish there was someone similar to him/her. Remember like attracts like so I bet in your employees network theres many more just like them with similar skills and a similar personality.
- Reviews: Give your employees new products to try, let them blog about them and tweet about them, remember if they’ve got social capital then it’s cheaper than taking an advert out in the newspaper
- Happiness: Research shows that the higher levels of social Capital a person has it usually signifies a happier person because they’re well connected.
- Recommendations: If your employees have good social capital then they’ll be able to quickly help you when you’re looking to change suppliers or need a service provider.
- Crowdsource: Employees with social capital don't have a problem making things happen online. For example if your organisation wanted to raise money for a charity then through your employees social capital this could be done a lot faster than doing a raffle in the office!
So when you speak to the next applicant remember they come with a tribe!
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Julie Bishop Jobhop.co.uk
In:
- Social media