Social media as a recruitment tool
- Cost per hire
- $2,800
- Internal cost (the hours)
- $5,400
- External cost (ads and agency)
- $11,400
The numbers on this page come from the inputs you enter and the method stated: 3,600 seconds to an hour, 52 weeks to a year, twelve months to a year, and nothing else. No industry shrinkage figure, no occupancy benchmark and no assumption about your attrition; every one of those is yours to enter.
Social media as a recruitment tool has a real strength and a real weakness, and a small employer is better served by knowing both than by a case study. The strength is reach into passive candidates: people who are not looking at job boards because they are not looking, which is most of the good ones for many roles. The weakness is targeting precision, which shows up as a lower applicant-to-screen ratio, more sifting for the same hires. On the worked example a desk sifts 300 applicants for six hires at a 20% screen rate, and a channel that halves that ratio doubles the reading for the same result. Whether the trade is worth it depends on the role and cannot be settled in the abstract. What can be settled is the measurement: record the source, run a quarter, compare the ratios. This page sets out what to expect from the channel and how to judge it on your own numbers.
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What it is good at
Reaching people who are not actively applying, and showing what an employer is actually like rather than what a job advert claims. Both of those matter most for roles where the strongest candidates are already employed and not reading job boards at all.
What it is weak at
Precision. A post travels to people who have no interest in the role alongside those who do, and the resulting applications need more sifting. That cost is real and it lands on whoever reads the applications, usually the person who least has time.
How to judge it fairly
By source-level conversion over a quarter, not by the applicant count and not by engagement. The pipeline sheet on this site gives you the ratios; comparing them by source is the whole exercise and it needs one extra field.
Will it do what you need for Social media as a recruitment tool?
Tell us how your team plans its staffing today and where the number gets argued; a person who has built one answers.
Social media as a recruitment tool: common questions
Is social media better than a job board? Different rather than better. Boards reach people looking now; social reaches people who are not. Most small desks end up using both and should measure them separately.
Do I need a big following? No, and this is worth saying because it stops many small employers trying. Reach through the networks of the people who already work for you does more for most roles than a corporate account does.
What about candidate screening on social profiles? That is a selection decision rather than a sourcing one, and it carries fairness and legal considerations. The EEOC guidance on selection procedures is the place to start and your employment adviser is the place to finish.
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