And the survey says… more Human Resources professionals are using social networks to augment or replace traditional recruiting techniques. According to a social recruiting survey by Jobvite, an online social recruiting service company, 83% of businesses polled said they are already or planning on using social networks to find new employees this year.

In the sense that referral hires in general are stronger and of higher quality, it’s fitting that social network recruiting would be a natural way to attract the great-fit employees who already know about your company and are inclined to stick around longer.

Jobvite’s survey indicates:

• 46% of respondents plan to spend more on social recruiting in 2010 than in 2009
• 38% will spend less on third-party recruiters and search firms
• 36% will spend less on job boards
• Only 17% use no social networking or don’t know if they will use social networking for recruiting new staff

Why less on job boards? Respondents rated job boards last for candidate quality; referrals were rated highest. Only 17% of companies surveyed planned to spend more on job boards in 2010 than they did in 2009.

Another interesting fact is that Jobvite’s first survey in 2008 showed that more than twice as many recruiters used LinkedIn than Facebook as a social network recruiting tool; Twitter didn’t even appear as a response to “what social networks do you use for recruiting?” This year, 78% of those surveyed indicated they use LinkedIn, 55% use Facebook and 45% use Twitter.

HR managers are also using social network tools to research candidates through LinkedIn (over 70%) and Facebook (nearly 50%). About 60% used search engines to research job seekers—perhaps as simply as Googling each name.

With both the cost of recruiting and the number of candidates for every position going up, it can make sense to take advantage of low-cost or free tools to improve the quality of your next group of job interviewees.

And don’t neglect to conduct thorough pre-employment screening before you hire! No social network will tell you whether a new hire has a criminal history or is a financial risk to your company.

Right now, lots of good, smart people are looking for work. If your business is in hiring mode—and plenty still are, despite the economy—how can you focus your recruiting efforts and find the right people?

Employee recruitment has become more complicated as the usual practices have changed over the past several years. Mass advertising, online or in print, won’t always target your best hire—especially for higher-level professional positions. If the perfect employee never sees your ad, how can you hire them? And a better question is, where are they and how can let them know you’re hiring?

That’s where social networking comes in to boost your recruiting efforts.

LinkedIn is probably the largest online social network for business. You could think of it as a replacement for your Rolodex—only it contains 42 million names across the entire globe!  Once you join and complete your profile, you can easily search for people you know. LinkedIn does just what its name implies—it links business people, whether they work in the same building or worked together twenty years ago.

But LinkedIn goes much farther in building community. It links you to all the contacts held by each of your contacts—so through degrees of separation, you are connected to all those millions of people.  LinkedIn also finds commonalities among its members, who then form groups based on shared industry connections or interests. Whether you’re in manufacturing, medicine, or marketing, you can find thousands of like-minded folks quickly.

Once you’ve established contacts, you can easily put out the word about positions you need to fill. Rather than calling thirty of your Rolodex contacts, LinkedIn can automatically put your message out to thirty thousand of your contacts’ contacts! Plus, you can search by keyword through the entire LinkedIn network to find people with the skills and qualifications you require. So instead of waiting for the perfect employee to come to you, you can find them in seconds—even if they weren’t looking for a job.

But remember that online social networking is much like face-to-face networking. Just as smart people are always looking for their next great position, smart employers are always recruiting their next great hire. That means you have to stay involved, be helpful, keep adding to your contacts, and invite others into your circle.

Social networks can make recruiting employees a breeze!

Before you hire, screen every applicant. Check out our Pre-Employment Screening services. Increase your peace of mind and save training costs by hiring smart.