Posted by: It would be interesting to see how many HR professional within the government have social media on their check list of must haves when thinking of how to brand and position their agency to attract young talent into government jobs.
At our recent Social Media 101 event one of our speakers, Stephanie Schierholz, spokesperson for NASA, asked a crowd of HR professionals if they were engaged in Twitter. In a room full of over 100 guests, I saw only a couple of hands go up in the air. When asked about Facebook, it was about the same. LinkedIn had a few more hands in the room go up, but still less than 20% of the attendees.
If we were to ask the question to an even broader audience, my guess is that the percentage would be very low. What a missed opportunity by the HR community!
According to a survey by Deloitte, social networking has become so central to the lives of the younger generation that they may actually turn down a job opportunity if sites like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and others were not available to them. Up to ten years ago, I doubt that we’d even consider that this would be an issue, but today, with social media so prevalent to our daily lives, it seems simple.
It is time to engage where the community engages.
Social media can help you connect with a new generation of future government employees. By integrating interactive social media channels within your recruiting, hiring and retention programs, you can quickly demonstrate your agency’s culture and brand. You can offer up-to-the-minute news on job openings and skills desired. Ultimately, you can give potential new hires a glimpse into life within your agency.
Deloitte, who issued the survey to Gen Y future candidates, agrees and suggests that if agencies want to attract a younger demographic they should:
- reinforce their brand or image
- explore technology-based initiatives, such as telecommuting and social networking
- offer opportunities for growth and development
I’d be very interested to hear from our readers about the hurdles you face in integrating social media into your current programs as well as successes that you’ve had.
Wed, Mar 3, 2010
Federal