Social media is one of the most effective and cost effective recruiting tools. Here’s a guide to social media recruiting for your spa.
Recruiting is time consuming and can be expensive. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce that time and cost while reaching more talent for your spa.
Social media is one of those ways. Social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and more, are widely available marketing platforms that allow you to reach a great number of people and that are, at least to some degree, all free to use. If you’re not using it for your spa recruitment, why not?
Some statistics about social media recruiting:
79% of job applicants use social media in their job search.
70% of hiring managers say they’ve successfully hired with social media.
73% of millennials found their last position through a social media site.
71% of recruiters said social media recruiting was effective in decreasing time-to-fill for non-management, salaried positions.
80% of employers say social recruiting helps them find passive candidates.
91% of employers are using social media to hire talent.
Why use social media to recruit for your spa
Those are some interesting numbers. Let’s take a little look at what they mean. Recruiting through social media will help you:
Reach and hire more and better candidates.
“70% of hiring managers say they’ve successfully hired with social media.”
“79% of job applicants use social media in their job search.”
“73% of millennials found their last position through a social media site.”
“Job seekers rank social media and professional networks as the most useful job search resource.”
Whether you’re posting a job on your company website or a job board, or using a recruiting agency, you can reach significantly more people through social media, usually organically.
Reach passive candidates.
“80% of employers say social recruiting helps them find passive candidates.”
A passive candidate, meaning someone who is not actively job searching but who may be open to the right opportunity, will probably not see your job board posting, or even your LinkedIn posting. But they might see something on social media that appeals to them and consider looking into it.
Promote your employer brand.
“Job seekers rank social media and professional networks as the most useful job search resource.”
Your employer brand is everything when it comes to attracting top talent. Social media is probably the single most effective way of promoting your employer brand.
Hire faster and reduce recruiting costs.
“71% of recruiters said social media recruiting was effective in decreasing time-to-fill for non-management, salaried positions.”
Using social media to recruit can cut down on costs of job boards and recruiting agencies. If you build a strong brand you shouldn’t have to pay to promote posts, though this can also be done fairly cost effectively. Reducing time spent also means reducing costs.
How to use social media to recruit for your spa
When executed effectively, social media recruiting is a cost effective way of reaching a wide range of talent. Here are six tips for executing an effective social media recruiting strategy for your spa.
1. Use channels popular with your target audience
Know exactly who you want to reach, find out where they hang out, and go meet them there. It’s not always reasonable to maintain accounts on all platforms, nor is it necessarily a good use of your time.
LinkedIn is always a good recruiting platform. You can use both your personal and your company profiles to promote your job openings. But how many talented, passive candidates for spa therapy jobs are active there?
Your audience is probably on Instagram and TikTok, and maybe Facebook, though the demographic there skews older these days. Twitter can also be used for recruiting but may not be the ideal place to find spa and wellness talent. Only you can know where your audience lives.
2. Take an always-on approach
Whichever platforms you choose, you must keep them updated and in regular use, and not only post when you are trying to promote something, like an open position. Do this with recruiting, among other things, in mind. Many people think of recruiting only when there is an open position to fill. If, however, you create a brand where people are eager to work, you can have your pick of employees when the time comes.
This means not just posting but engaging with other accounts and building a community. Don’t think of social media as a one-way conversation in which you blast out your message. Think of it as a virtual networking event that never closes, where you have conversations and engage with people.
3. Focus on building your brand.
Your brand is the key element of marketing. Build it.
Both your consumer brand and your employer brand matter when it comes to recruiting. While your employer brand is the image you present to existing and potential employees, your consumer brand is the brand you present to customers. But don’t think of these as separate entities. Think of them as part of one holistic package. The type of business you run and customer you appeal to will impact the type of talent you attract, and vice versa.
That being said, you may also have an “employer” page dedicated to showcasing work life at your company and promoting job openings.
4. Join groups
Joining groups on Facebook and LinkedIn can help you find talent through network connections. Here you can often find many people who are open to work and people willing to refer you to their open-to-work friends and colleagues.
Be otherwise active in these groups and engage with other users, so that when you are looking for employee referrals, people will be responsive.
5. Engage your existing employees
There’s a good chance your existing employees have their own social media accounts and use them actively. Design a program that encourages you to help promote your brand and recruit through these channels. The key is to make it easy for them. Present them with post guidelines, or even outlines, that they can put up themselves if they so choose – or encourage them to create their own posts about jobs and what a wonderful experience it is to work for you. If they are happy at work they will be your best ambassadors.
This should not be mandatory. Forcing your team to post on social media if they don’t want to is the opposite of a good employee experience. Encourage. Don’t require.
6. Be creative
There are a lot of social media accounts, and a lot of spas out there. And most of them are probably hiring. Find what makes yours a special place to work and showcase that in your social media recruiting strategy.
What can you do that is unique and creative that will attract the talent you need? Figure that out and do it.
Hi! Check out this list of the spa & wellness trends we’ll be watching next year. Click here to download the Handbook: Seven wellness trends for 2022