Multi-Unit Franchisee Magazine Issue III, 2012 | Page 82

People
By Mel Kleiman

Online Hiring 2.0
Using social media to find employees

A

s is always the case, I learned
a lot at the annual Multi-Unit
Franchising Conference this
year. Most interestingly, while
more and more franchisees are using social
media to connect with existing customers
and attract new ones, more than 90 percent of those I polled are not using these
tools to also connect with present and/or
potential employees. If you are part of this
non-users group, I think I understand why.
First, there’s no sense of urgency. Employee turnover is low and there’s an overwhelming response to every job opening
that does occur. Second, many feel they
do not have the time to learn how to use
and manage these yet-to-be-proven digital
tools. I suspect some reluctance may also
be the normal, human aversion to change
and perhaps a bit of technophobia.
Remember when you just put out the
“Now Hiring” sign, placed a newspaper
ad, and took applications? These tools
opened your doors to a small percentage
of the workforce—mostly unemployed
people actively looking for jobs. That was
the world before the web.
Then along came the Internet, the
infrastructure for the World Wide Web,
version 1.0. Users interacted with static
web pages, but didn’t really communicate
through them. Job openings were on websites, but few accepted online applications.
Onsite application kiosks, email, and online bulletin board sys FV