“So really ask those questions that are going to get them to the heart of what your brand is and then that way, when you’re ready to move on to social media, you’ll have some really good content that’s true, that’s believable, and that’s very authentic.”
Chloé Rada
Senior Marketing Manager of Talent Acquisition, Sodexo
With over a decade of experience in the marketing, branding and advertising profession, Chloé Rada is no stranger to community management and the ever-growing use of social media for corporate purposes. During DEAM12, Sodexo’s Senior Marketing Manager of Talent Acquisition sat down with me and shared her insight on the implementation of social media into the Sodexo marketing strategy and it’s use for supplementing the recruitment process. She also provided some great advice for companies trying to begin or improve their social recruiting efforts.
Nancy: How are job seekers and candidates using social media to interact, what’s the trend? How are you responding?
Chloé: I think, from my perspective, they just want to be heard, and I think they want to know there’s a real person behind the scenes. We try to clearly lay things out on our website in terms of our recruiting process and we try to utilize videos to help explain what our hiring process is, as well as how to set up a job agent or how to use our mobile app. So we’re offering a lot of tutorials and job seeker advice, and those are the types of questions that I get and that I really like answering.
Nancy: What is your advice for laying the foundation for social media? What do you have to do first in order to get through the process and get it right?
Chloé: You have to take a controlled approach. Do an analysis of your existing employees and use them, in a focus group, asking what’s most important to them in terms of their employer, what motivates them, what keeps them around. So really ask those questions that are going to get them to the heart of what your brand is and then that way, when you’re ready to move on to social media, you’ll have some really good content that’s true, that’s believable, and that’s very authentic.
Nancy: One of things I think employers are seeing is, “How do I compete in social media, what do I do to stay practiced, or to stay interesting?”
Chloé: Nowadays, content is being developed with social in mind so as a marketer, you become very purposeful in picking images that support your message and that’s unique for your organization. Lean on other departments in your organization like your Corporate Communications or Diversity and Inclusion to learn of editorial focuses, gain content and visual assets throughout the year. If you have any type of internal surveys, maybe there’s some information from those that you’re able to share externally. In terms of the makeup of your candidates, a lot of applicant tracking systems give wonderful reporting features. Poll your community, or poll your employees. I think when you ask questions, you get answers. If you don’t ask questions, you don’t get answers.
Nancy: Tell me, do you recommend having a specific careers page within social media?
Chloé: I definitely would suggest having a separate careers page because your fan base is going to be different. As a job seeker, you basically want to know, “Are there jobs and can I get hired?” So in addition to just pushing out jobs available in your organization, offer up some good advice to them too. We run a monthly recruiter series on our careers blog and it’s actually written by our recruiters. Because they’re talking to thousands of candidates every single year, they’ve got some really good advice!
Nancy: What about Pinterest? Many people say, “Ah, there’s a great decorating idea or a recipe.” How can you turn that into a career resource?
Chloé: Pinterest acts as catalog to all things career-related at Sodexo. Since Pinterest is a virtual bulletin board, it’s a great vehicle to tell our story as an employer. We do that through 23 boards, 898 pins. We have boards that will show candidates our culture and value but also use them to creatively display our jobs, offer ways to connect to with our recruitment team and share valuable job seeker tips. (Visit the Sodexo USA Careers Pinterest page)
Nancy: And how do you respond, especially on Facebook or on Twitter, when people are expecting responses?
Chloé: We receive numerous comments each day on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter and I generally respond as soon as possible and triage any specific questions about our positions to our recruiters. Our policy is to respond in less than 48 hours. By responding in a timely manner, we are letting our community know that we are listening and care about their candidate experience with us. Although we cannot speak to every single candidate who is not selected, we try to communicate through our social sites to help improve their chances of hiring success with Sodexo or with any company. (Visit the best of that advice at http://www.sodexo.jobs/job_seeker_tips/index.htm )
Thanks for the great advice Chloé! Check out her advice to job seekers in a video created for the Social Jobs Partnership or visit Sodexo’s Network With Us page to see all of its social media networks and communities.
