17 February 2011: A new global survey of HR professionals published today by StepStone Solutions reveals that corporate policies and lack of understanding are stifling recruiters’ use of social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn to acquire new talent, despite the fact that two thirds of employers say they want to hire more people in the coming year. From the candidates’ perspective, 82 per cent of jobseekers respond positively to contact via social media, making it ideally suited to building talent pools among in-demand staff. The full survey results, the barriers to social media adoption, and ways to overcome them and drive new candidate streams, are discussed in a new White Paper from StepStone Solutions which is available here: http://goto.stepstonesolutions.com/social-recruiting/

According to the report sixty percent of the employers surveyed already use social media as part of their recruitment strategy and over a quarter of employers yet to explore social media plan to do so in the near future. Yet 28 per cent said that corporate policies restricting access to social networking sites were a problem, and a lack of awareness of social media was cited by 69 per cent of respondents as the greatest barrier to implementation.

StepStone Solutions CEO, Matthew Parker, explains: “Recruiters’ interest in social media is growing — 96% of recruiters said that social media has a role to play in recruitment – because it’s one of best ways to reach out to potential employees worldwide and build new talent pools, especially for high demand skills like mobile application developers or managers with experience in emerging markets. However, many recruiters aren’t opening Twitter accounts or LinkedIn pages in the absence of clear corporate support. Red tape and a lack of understanding may be harming the uptake of social media despite the fact that recruitment tools with built in capabilities are there to support them.”

Available for download at http://goto.stepstonesolutions.com/social-recruiting/ the whitepaper provides the full survey results plus a step-by-step guide to establishing a talent acquisition action plan and outlines tools for measuring social media success.

About StepStone Solutions

StepStone Solutions delivers world class technology for finding, recruiting, retaining, managing and developing people. Our global talent acquisition and talent management solutions are available in many languages, with seamless, internet-based access. With the support of our experienced professionals they can be quickly and reliably implemented anywhere in the world, using SaaS or on-premises delivery, to give rapid return on investment. Over 1,600 organisations in 50 countries rely on StepStone Solutions every day to improve their business performance, build effective talent strategies, and to help their people have more effective, enjoyable and rewarding careers. StepStone Solutions operates in 16 countries and employs around 550 people. Its global customers include Alibaba, Bank of China International, Carlson Wagonlit, France Telecom, Deloitte, Deutsche Telekom, Grupo Azucarero Mexico, Heineken, Huawei, Lufthansa, Kruger Products, PUMA, and Virgin Atlantic.

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This press release was distributed through PR Web by Human Resources Marketer (HR Marketer: www.HRmarketer.com) on behalf of the company listed above.