US companies are ahead of their UK counterparts when it comes to using the web and social media to recruit new employees, new research from recruitment software provider Zartis suggests.
LinkedIn is the most popular social media network for recruitment, with one-quarter of US companies directly advertising job vacancies on the site, compared to 14pc of UK companies doing the same.
When it comes to Twitter, only 9pc of UK companies are using the microblogging site to promote vacancies, whereas 23pc of US companies are tweeting about job openings. This may tie in with the fact that more US companies use applicant tracking systems which often auto post to Twitter, Zartis says. Most employee referral programs also result in an uplift in the use of Twitter for hiring.
Social networking giant Facebook, despite its 750m users, is the least-used network. Only one UK company out of those surveyed lists jobs on Facebook. The US number is also low, with four companies posting job openings on Facebook.
In the UK, 61pc of companies are advertising jobs on their own website. However, only 11pc are using an applicant tracking system, or anything other than email to receive job applications.
In the US, a similar amount of companies (68pc) advertise roles on their websites but their use of applicant tracking systems is more than double at 23pc.
Social recruiting is tipped as a huge growth sector, and the survey results suggests it is still in its infancy.
Zartis conducted its researching by using the Sunday Times FastTrack 100 list for UK companies, and the Red Herring top companies list for US companies. Zartis selected every second company on the list to get to 100, then visited every site and analysed the companies’ use of web and social media for recruitment.
