Get the tone right

Students are often a good indicator of things to come - especially in recruitment advertising

"Students appear to want their cake and eat it," says Phipps. "They appear to want to keep their online persona private but when you ask them whether they'd like instant communication with tutors or feedback on essays (via Skype or Facebook) the answer is always yes." - mediaguardian

Often you see that it is the tone of the interuption that is wrong ... not being interupted.

Anyway have a read about the research - it is interesting ...

Comments

[Luke Mckend]

I suppose this brings us back to the question of how employers are using all means at their disposal to find out about the candidates they are recruiting. This research also chimes nicely with a session I had with Msc students at Warwick business schools recently talking about the various online tools that are available to candidates. When I touched on the notion that they need to proactively manage their online reputations, they were indignant at the thought that recruiters would use personal information they find on social networking sites/ blogs etc as part of their (unofficial) assessment criteria. It will be interesting to see whether the personal/professional divide is re-established as these students become the recruiters of tomorrow.

[Matt]

I saw PWC do a presentation a few weeks back about their graduate recruitment activity and they now make a point of explicitly telling students that they won't use Facebook / MySpace etc to check them out. Very clever marketing strategy in my opinion as it gives the students a message that PWC understands them and how they use these sites. I wonder if any other companies will follow their lead

Matt

[Paul Harrison]

Like you Luke, I am really surprised Luke that those students were surprised / upset that recruiters might use personal profiles as part of the assessment process.

Because its such a controlled process, A CV and a couple of interviews will never give a true indication of a candidate's values / motivations / personality - all the things that can make a difference between a 'good fit' and a less successful hire. SMEs might well lead the charge here - a good fit in a small company is often more important than a good fit at a big company