Anti-social media behaviour harms businesses, according to Portsmouth recruitment firm Wild Recruitment

Wild Recruitment, which has branches in Portsmouth, Poole, Milton Keynes, and London, said the situation has reversed because previously they’d advise candidates to check their own social media.

But with the shift in power, it is candidates who will look at a company’s social media and networking platforms to decide if it is somewhere they want to work.

The younger generation is now likely to be attracted to businesses that not only highlight all the benefits of working for them but offer a conscience, according to Wild Recruitment.

Messages of inclusivity, diversity and charity are likely to chime with the priorities of the younger generations.

Michelle Merritt, managing director of Wild Recruitment and Wild Berry Associates, said: ‘For some years we have advised candidates to check their social media and delete inappropriate posts. It is the first place prospective employers look and might be the difference between being offered a role or not.

‘Now there is such a shortage of workers in a number of sectors that it is the businesses we are advising to improve their social media offering.

‘Of course, candidates should still check theirs, but the onus is now on employers to offer what candidates want.

‘As well as flexible working, good pay and all the other usual things, candidates will make decisions on whether they like a company’s messaging.

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‘It is more than the traditional corporate social responsibility, but includes overt commitments to diversity, inclusivity, and charity as well as more nebulous concepts such as ‘kindness’. It’s very much about perception but it is also about putting what you say into practice.’

The managing director added that the recruitment firm has noticed that the companies who address this issue attract the brightest workers and that recruiting through social media may be a long-standing method, but the platforms ‘should be used to give a more rounded insight into a company.’

Wild Recruitment is part of Berry Recruitment Group (BRG), operating from nearly 40 locations across England and Wales.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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