I want to take a flash back tour. Not that many years ago that newspapers were the primary source for finding a job. In fact I remember using newspapers to find a job. Many people began their career because of one ad in a paper.
Fast forward a few years and the Internet allowed for the explosion of job board.Here are few of the big ones in Canada and a local one in Lethbridge.It changed how employers could promote and screen candidates.
I want to pause our flash back to talk about how technology changes communication and in some cases, it replaces it, like the telegraph. That is an all but obsolete technology because of the telephone. We’ve had the fax, e-mail, the web, social media and mobile. The HR world is not immune to technology impacting communication.
Monster.com, one of the largest online job boards, has seen a 70% drop in share prices, with the bulk of that decrease happening in July of this year. There’s lots of reasons that contribute to this, one of which are social media tools.
According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Canadian newspapers saw an average decline of 5.3% in circulation for the six months leading up to March 31 of this year. To bring it closer to home, the Edmonton Journal saw a 5.1% decline. What does that mean? It means companies will be looking to advertise jobs using channels that will reach their audiences.
The writing is on the wall. A change is ahead of us. How employers find employees and people find jobs is changing. Just like communication dramatically changed with e-mail and the social web. At the heart of it is social media.
It’s not the tools. I mean we’ve all heard of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. But social media is platform independent. Tools may come and go. I mean look at the new kid on the block, Google+.
It’s about the conversations. It’s about connecting with others. We are after-all, social creatures.
Social media is not about who can yell the most.In your traditional
If it weren't for Jen Harris' followers on Twitter, she would not have been notified of another job opportunity, only moments after getting laid off from Idaho-based MPC computers in October.As Harris packed up her desk she sent out a tweet that read: "just been laid off from MPC.""By the time I left the parking lot, I had a job offer from a friend that had a Web development company in town," she said.Sometimes it’s not as fast. I helped teach a course at Lethbridge College, but last year I was quite busy and couldn’t help. The instructor asked if I know of someone who could help. I immediately thought of someone. We first introduced a few months earlier on Twitter.