BURLINGAME – July 12, 2011 – Jobvite, the leading recruiting platform for the social web, today announced the findings of its annual Social Recruiting Survey and introduced the Jobvite Index which tracks actual social recruiting results. This new data reveals that social recruiting continues rapid growth among U.S. companies with 89% planning to recruit through social media this year, up from 83% in 2010. Most (64%) have expanded their social recruiting programs to two or more networks. As competition for skilled labor grows, social recruiting tops respondents’ list two years running as the most popular area to increase investment.
The Jobvite survey, conducted in June, polled more than 800 U.S.-based human resources and recruitment professionals on their social recruiting activities and intentions. But to discover the actual results for companies, the Jobvite Index aggregates social recruiting data drawn from Jobvite customers. Social recruiting applications by Jobvite are used by over 500 companies, such as Whole Foods Market, Starbucks Coffee Company, Zappos.com, Inc., Yelp and Etsy.
The fourth annual survey once again shows growth in social recruiting. Almost 2/3 of employers have now made successful hires through social networks, and a majority of companies plan to invest more in social recruiting in the coming year.
“The data show that recruiting departments, like marketing departments, are reaching and engaging their targets in multiple social networks,” said Dan Finnigan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Jobvite. “The fastest moving companies increasingly use the richness of profiles in LinkedIn, the power of online connections in Facebook, and the instant reach of Twitter to develop valuable talent pools and make new hires.”
While almost all surveyed companies (87%) use LinkedIn for social recruiting (up from 78% last year), most target talent on at least two networks. More than half (55%) use Facebook and 47% use Twitter.
“Jobvite’s new data confirms our research that social recruiting has become an essential element of today’s corporate recruiting strategy,” said Josh Bersin, President and CEO of Bersin & Associates, a leading industry research firm. “The data also points out that referral-based recruiting is a new ‘secret weapon’ for talent acquisition. Companies that focus heavily on referral strategies, enabled by social networks, are delivering the highest quality of hire at the lowest overall cost.”
Proof that the labor market continues to recover, 67% of survey respondents said they plan to increase hiring over the next 12 months (up from 56% in 2010). They will almost universally employ social recruiting, and most companies anticipate more hiring competition.
“Approximately 50 percent of our hires so far this year have been the result of employee referral,” said Ken Perluss, director or staffing at Coupons.com Incorporated. “With Jobvite, every one of our employees can quickly and easily share information about open jobs with their social networks and help find qualified candidates; it’s a powerful competitive advantage as we rapidly expand.”
Download the full report on the Jobvite Social Recruiting Survey 2011 or see the complete Jobvite Index.
About Jobvite
Jobvite is the leading recruiting platform for the social web. Today’s fastest-growing companies use applicant tracking, recruiter CRM and social recruiting software solutions from Jobvite to target the right talent and build the best teams. Jobvite is a complete, modular Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform which can optimize the speed, cost-effectiveness and ease of recruiting for any company. For more information, visit www.jobvite.com.