Doctor Who?

[Eva Bearryman]

The use of social media channels is rapidly on the increase in many areas of the healthcare sector, not least for the recruitment of healthcare professionals.

 

Aside from being a place to share the latest news, or rant about the latest news, Twitter has also become a means of recruitment for organisations all over the world who often have specially dedicated HR Twitter handles. Recruitment agencies also often have specific accounts to advertise vacancies to possible candidates who, if big on the tweeting will likely also follow companies they may be interested in working for.

 

The Isle of Jura, located off the west coast of Scotland and home to more deer than people, this summer found itself on the BBC website when the islanders took to facebook to recruit a new GP for the 200 person community. The vacancy was advertised through a group created on the network - Perfect Practice: Idyllic Island  to let the world know that the Isle was looking for a new resident doctor – ‘This is a dream job for someone – so please like our page and share with all your friends. The right doctor is out there somewhere and we want to find them! Doctor Who?’ This shows great use of facebook for recruitment and the media coverage of this added immense value to their search for a suitable candidate.

 

If like me, trailing through job adverts on fuzzy websites isn't your idea of fun then finding a job through a social media channel is the better alternative. From my experiences, Linkedin is the best way to recruit and also to find a job. Facebook could lead to awkward situations of your prospective employer looking at the latest photos from Friday night at the pub, while Twitter doesn’t group relevant job vacancies together for you. With its more professional edge, and people’s qualifications more readily available, Linkedin can help to streamline the recruitment process. On graduation I set up a handy job email alert from Linkedin – a great way to find out about relevant vacancies but also a shortcut for learning more about the types of companies that you might want to work for and also those who recruit most. The recruitment process, facilitated by social media channels as well as Skype (often used for interviewing) will continue to become easier as long as we adjust to the benefits that new forms of social media can bring.