• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer, March 7, 2013

For the first time since Bullhorn began issuing annual Trends Reports of North America, respondents contended that the single biggest overall opportunity for staffing and recruiting professionals in the upcoming year was “increased access to passive candidates via social media.” That opportunity is considered to have greater potential to advance the recruiting industry than introducing more efficient business processes, an increase in flexible roles and workspaces, untapped growth in emerging economies, increased business due to recruiting consolidation, and sourcing candidates from overseas.

Recruiting professionals listed their biggest challenge for 2013 as a lack of skilled candidates (33%). Additionally, in a separate question, 76.1% of respondents claimed to have a shortage of skilled candidates in their respective recruiting sectors. With more than half of all North American respondents recruiting for industries including information technology, this lack and/or shortage of “skilled candidates” quandary brings to mind the war for talent (foreshadowed in the 2011 Trends Report, “An Industry on the Upswing”) over software developers and programmers, especially in tech hubs such as Boston, Silicon Valley, and New York City. 

The second most cited major challenge for 2013 was unrealistic client expectations (26.5%). One recruiter contended that the biggest issue was that “candidate compensation requirements are not in line with client expectations” – reflective of both challenges. Recruiters also expressed worry about a weak economic outlook for 2013, suggesting that the end of the Great Recession hasn’t fully appeased uncertainty over the direction of the economy. 

98.2% of recruiters polled used social media for recruiting in 2012. For the 1.8% of respondents who didn’t take advantage of social recruiting in 2012, 29.2% said it was because they didn’t know how to measure its effectiveness and 25% claimed it was because they didn’t know how to use it.

97.3% of recruiters used LinkedIn for recruiting in 2012. Newer social networks also gained traction, with 19.1% of staffing professionals leveraging Google Plus this year and 3.6% using Pinterest. Though more than half of respondents (51.3%) used Facebook and 48.8% used Twitter, these percentages are lower than those of 2011, in which 60.2% used Facebook and 51.5% Twitter. In contrast, more respondents used LinkedIn in 2012 than in 2011. 

When recruiters were asked which social networks produced candidates they were actually able to place, 16.7% selected Facebook while only 12.7% selected Twitter. In 2011, the same percentage (16.7%) successfully placed candidates from Facebook versus 10.1% with Twitter in 2011.

83% of recruiters reported that the biggest benefit of using social media for recruiting was finding passive candidates, an increase of 6% over 2011, followed by building brand awareness, developing new client leads, and filling jobs more quickly. Given that respondents outlined the greatest opportunity for 2013 as access to passive candidates via social media, it seems that finding passive candidates is of greater focus to recruiters than building brand awareness and even developing new client leads in the current business environment.

Social networking has made huge leaps over the past three years, finally achieving recognition as the best way to obtain new clients. Social networking tied for the top spot with attending networking events, ahead of joining professional groups and maintaining an online presence (e.g. website, blog). This is a departure from 2011, where social networking came in third, and 2010, where it came in fourth. 

For additional information and to source the complete PDF file with charts.