Heather Polivka and her team at UnitedHealth Group have created an amazing ambassador program in which employees can become certified social media recruiters on behalf of the brand.
The program involves thorough training, a certification process and ongoing support. The company has 45 volunteers actively recruiting for UnitedHealth Group through social media — and the company is already seeing big results, as social-recruiting hires outnumber hires from channels such as job fairs and traditional media.
In her BlogWell presentation, Polivka walked the audience through how her team launched the program and how it’s continuing to expand it. A few of Polivka’s take-aways:
- Social helps you show your company culture. The No. 1 question recruiters get is, “What is it like to work there, really?” — and because social allows for more human and transparent communications, they’re able to better demonstrate their brand’s culture in their everyday outreach.
- Reach out to people at the big moments. Polivka and her team look for people who say they’re going in for an interview or announce that they just got hired and reach out to them. They’ll say hello, wish them good luck and welcome them when they accept job offers.
- Social can help you connect with hard-to-reach talent. UnitedHealth Group expected to find marketers and IT professionals in social media, but they’ve also had a lot of success reaching high-demand talent, like actuaries. They’ve created a network with these professionals and have now hired more of them through social channels than any other source.
Watch Polivka’s case study. Slides are available.