Working Your Organization’s Network and Recruiting 2.0
When an organization has an open position, it typically relies on advertising the job through traditional means, such as online job boards and newspaper classifieds. However, many organizations overlook the recruiting power of the personal and professional networks of their staff members, dismissing networking as too difficult, time consuming or foreign to them.
According to a study by the U.S. Department of Labor in 2001, however, almost half of all jobseekers (48 percent) obtain their jobs through referrals. Additionally, numerous reports indicate that between 60 and 80 percent of executive level positions are filled through networking or referrals, especially in the nonprofit sector. The ability to leverage and extend an organization’s known relationships, as well as market its opportunities to jobseekers, is essential to making networking work as a viable recruitment source.
What’s in a Network?
A healthy network is a well-tended network. To ensure that an organization’s network will be available and effective when needed, it is important to define who is in that network. An organizational network consists of a varied group of people, all with some interest in or association with the organization. Networks are typically comprised of current employees and board members and all of their individual acquaintances, former employees, funders, community partners, peer groups, and other contacts that may have been developed.
Some organizations have larger networks and have done more to cultivate those groups than others. City Year, a national nonprofit that unites young people of all backgrounds for a year of full-time service, has one of the most engaged and active networks in the country. Although much of their hiring comes from within the organization, Elaine Mak, Director of Talent Services at City Year, commented in a recent interview with Commongood Careers that “a good portion of our external hires come from our network, through funders, friends and family, and other contacts… especially from friends of friends.”
In addition to knowing who is in their network, it is crucial that organizations communicate with their members regularly. Keeping in touch with the members of a network, such as sending occasional emails with friendly updates and milestones, is important relationship maintenance.
Creating Your “Employer Brand”
Part of the ongoing communication with a network is sharing information that creates overall positive associations with an organization, including helping people to understand the exciting and attractive elements of working at the organization. Commongood Careers’ study The Voice of Nonprofit Talent in 2008 suggests that one way organizations can attract more talent is to create a distinct perception of themselves as an employer, essentially an “employer brand.” Just as an organization has messages to communicate to funders, it needs to communicate positive information about itself to potential employees.
“We find that what attracts people to share our open positions with their networks is not necessarily any particular aspect of the position itself, but the overall message and reputation of the organization in general,” Elaine Mak of City Year continued. “People will often select themselves out if they discover that City Year is not the right fit for them, but the people that do connect will find the right position eventually. Often they get that information through messages about what it’s like to work here and what City Year values in its employees.”
How and When to Network
There are many methods to reach members of an organization’s network. Sending out information in newsletters and via e-mails are quick and relatively simple ways to blast out information about new positions. Getting in touch by phone or in person with key contacts can help an organization pinpoint prospective candidates or people who can connect the organization to strong candidates.
“The most successful networking we’ve found is still through word of mouth,” Mak said. “We use our newsletter, especially our corps member alumni newsletter, to promote job openings, but most of the success we have in networking for hires has been reaching out to individuals and getting them excited about our positions.”
There is no wrong time for an organization to start talking to its network about its hiring needs, even if it doesn’t have current open positions. Sometimes the best connections take time to develop, so engaging people early and often can be important. That way, when the time is right to make a hire, an organization may already have a short list of potential candidates to contact.
Recruiting 2.0: Using Online Social Networking
Thanks to the proliferation of social networking websites (over 200 such sites have been developed over the past ten years), nonprofits can go online to grow their networks, promote their employer brand and connect with prospective employees. These sites have evolved into web-based communities of millions of people connecting based on shared interests and affiliations. Many nonprofits are establishing a presence beyond their homepage and are utilizing social networking sites to recruit talent and spread the word of social change. Because setting up and managing online networks merely require an investment of time, nonprofits can greatly benefit from this low-effort, low-cost and high-touch means of expanding their inner circles and reaching passive job candidates. Below are a few examples of the most effective social networking sites for recruitment.
Facebook: Founded in 2004 by a Harvard University undergraduate, Facebook allows users to create personal profiles and join networks based on shared affiliations such as universities, geographic regions, and organizations. Though Facebook originally targeted the college-age population, students now make up only half of all active users. Today, Facebook touts 67 million members and notes that users over the age of 25 are its fastest growing demographic. This trend is encouraging for organizations who are seeking more seasoned employees through this avenue. Facebook is also currently the fifth most visited web site in the world, with its users spending an average of 25 minutes on the site a day perusing profiles of their personal connections. These are engaged users who share information like job leads.
On Facebook, individuals and organizations create personal profiles to which other Facebook members can then connect. For example, Commongood Careers’ fan page on Facebook is entitled “Will Work for Social Change” and we would love for you to become a member of our network! As a nonprofit that operates a person-to-person micro-lending program, Kiva has also greatly benefited from having a Facebook profile. Kiva’s page includes basic information about their organization such as its mission, logo, and URL. On its page, Kiva invites Facebook members to add themselves as a “fan.” On one day, the author of this article became Kiva’s 3,927th Facebook Fan, and by the end of the week, Kiva’s total fans numbered 4,912 members. By joining in this way, fans are then able to share Kiva’s page with their personal Facebook contacts. This viral networking spreads the word about Kiva’s work through like-minded networks.
As demonstrated by Kiva, organizations can significantly grow their networks by using Facebook. Having a Facebook profile communicates to today’s jobseekers that an organization is nimble and responsive to current trends. Additionally, extending an organization’s network using Facebook can help when hiring. For example, an organization can post its open positions on a page that is instantly viewable to literally millions of users. Furthermore, an organization can search member profiles to identify and reach out to prospective candidates or to glean more information about those who have applied to a position at their organization.
LinkedIn: One of the most widely used social networking web sites for nonprofit professionals is LinkedIn. Members create profiles that summarize their professional accomplishments, which can then be used to find and be found by “connections,” such as current and former colleagues, clients, partners, and schoolmates. Your network consists of your connections, your connections’ connections, and the people they know, linking you to thousands of other professionals. The site also features a job board where members post open jobs at their organizations, as well as “LinkedIn for Good,” a section within the site created to promote positive social change.
Prior to LinkedIn, second and third degree connections to people were often undiscovered. Knowledge of these indirect connections can be extremely valuable when hiring and sourcing candidates. Instead of applicant pools of complete strangers, hiring organizations can first tap their colleagues’ networks for potential jobseekers. These jobseekers can then be recommended through trusted colleagues. In this way, LinkedIn can also be a source for “off-book” references.
For recruiting and sourcing, Commongood Careers uses LinkedIn regularly. When launching a new search, we often post job descriptions on LinkedIn, as well as browse our personal connections to identify strong candidates. To date, we have found hundreds of candidates and new connections through LinkedIn. As a result, we have been able to maximize our ability to connect with people within our spheres of association. Commongood has also created a group on LinkedIn that we encourage you to join as an example of how to leverage such groups within your network.
Doostang: Founded by two alumni from Stanford and MIT who wanted an easy way for their friends to share job information, Doostang is an invitation-only online career community of over 400,000 members. Members use Doostang to share relevant career opportunities, as well as to interact through groups and forums. Describing itself as an “exclusive online career community that brings together the world’s most talented minds and the world’s leading employers,” Doostang’s greatest asset is its membership of individuals from prestigious universities, companies, and other affiliations.
Doostang can be a highly effective tool for advertising new positions and sourcing candidates. Individuals from hiring organizations can create a personal profile and/or a special practice group on Doostang. By creating a group, users can post open positions, as well as invite other Doostang members to join the group. Remember, Doostang is invitation only, but if you are interested in joining, Commongood Careers has created a special practice group on Doostang, entitled “Careers in the Social Sector.” If you are interested in this group, send an email with the subject “Request to join” to .
Conclusion
Nonprofit networks can provide powerful resources for generating leads, soliciting support and finding jobseekers to fill almost any type of position. The most important first step is to map out and identify your network so that you can be strategic about how you tap into those connections on an ongoing basis. Direct one-to-one contact by email, phone or in person is still the strongest way to build deep and lasting relationships, but a new generation of online social networking sites are creating low-cost, low-effort means of reaching millions of people through passive outreach and viral networking. These sites put your network to work and help you to substantially broaden your reach. New sites, such as the exciting launch of Change.org and others, are being developed regularly, so make sure that your organization stays on the cutting edge of this recruiting revolution.
This article was written by Commongood Careers and is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical-NoDerivs 2.5 License.
For more information about nonprofit and socially entrepreneurial careers, visit Commongood Careers at http://www.cgcareers.org.