Social becomes #1 for sourcing tech superheroes

We polled hundreds of tech recruiters. Not only do nearly 7 in 10

recruiters plan to increase their usage of social in 2017 – 74%
also plan to increase their investment in it.

And yet 1 in 10 recruiters haven’t dipped their toes into the social
waters. It’s time. Year after year, recruiters see an increase in
candidate quality and quantity when using social.

Access to highly sought after Millennials is also more

important than ever — and social is giving recruiters just that.

Still, companies using social have problems to address. Their

recruiters want more training. More time. And they need to know
how to best engage with top talent.

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9 out of 10 tech recruiters are using social

Social isn’t just an occasional

method to source top talent.
Nearly 60% are using it the
majority of the time.
How often do you
use social sites to
support your tech
recruiting efforts?

All of the time

A majority of
the time
Some of the time
Rarely
Never

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If you’re not using social, you’re missing out

Social moved into the #1

spot this year for the best
source of tech candidates,
proving it’s effectiveness.

How would you

rank the following
to source tech
candidates? 58% Social sites 45% Job boards 25% Referral 16% Company 14% Outside
programs career sites agencies and
recruiters
4
Year after year, recruiters see high ROI with social

Uptick in candidate Categories in which tech recruiters say social is improving or greatly
improving their results.
quality? Check.
Referrals, time to
hire and cost of
hire? Check, check
and check.

5
Social is a must to reach Millennials

73% of recruiters
see an improvement
accessing Millennials
through social.

73% of
Millennials
found their last job
through social.*
* Source: The Aberdeen Group

6
Social will continue to climb in 2017

Recruiters are putting

their money where their How would you
mouth is. Nearly 7 in describe your
future intent to use
10 plan to increase social sites to
their usage of social. recruit tech talent?

Plan to increase
use (up 3% from
last year)
Plan to maintain
current level of use
Plan to reduce use

7
When competing for talent, recruiters invest in social

Social tops the list of methods recruiters are investing in to help them
source and hire the best tech talent.

In the coming
year, which of
the following
tools are you
planning to
increase your
investment in?

8
Recruiters are ponying up dollars for social

Recruiters spending
at least $1,000 per year What is your current annual expenditure for social recruiting tools?
on social is up from
last year, proving
positive ROI.

9
The more social sites, the better

Recruiters aren’t just reliant on one social site.

More than 70% use 2 or more to recruit tech
talent and nearly half use 3 or more.

10
Which sites are the best for tech?

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Facebook and Twitter reign supreme (for now)

Both platforms have proven to Site used most frequently:

be powerful sources of tech
talent, though recruiters are
starting to rely more heavily on
niche sites like GitHub.

12
Skills data and contact info are a must…

Which information is very important

to you when socially recruiting tech
candidates?

13
… profanity and spelling errors, not so much

When sourcing candidates on

social, which of the following
do you view most negatively?

Spelling errors
Profanity
Oversharing
Alcohol consumption
Political posts
Frequency
Other

14
 Email and phone are still your best bets

Tech pros prefer email and phone over social, and it

shows.* Nearly 30% of recruiters are getting a high
response rate of >50% using these channels.

Average response Average response

rates using email rates using social
or phone media channels

* Dice Candidate Survey, 2016

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 Too much information too soon (TMI!)

1 in 4 tech pros
don’t respond to a In your first outreach to a tech candidate, what
recruiter because do you generally include?
their message is
generic.* Yet 55%
of recruiters link to
a job in their initial
outreach — eek!

* Dice Candidate Survey, 2016

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Third times a charm

45% of recruiters reach

out to candidates 4+
times. Since most tech
pros lose interest after 2
attempts,* tread lightly.
How many different
methods (email,
phone, social sites,
etc.) do you use to
engage a tech
professional?

1 4
2 5
3

* Dice Candidate Survey, 2015

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Not all recruiters are social experts

Though social has been

around for 10+ years, What are the biggest barriers for using social to recruit talent?
recruiters know they need
more training and time to
be successful.

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Methodology — Social Recruiting in Tech: 2016-17 Survey
The 2016-17 Social Recruiting in Tech Survey was administered by Dice online,
with 717 active tech recruiters responding between October 24 and November 2,
2016. Respondents were invited to participate in the survey through a notification
on the Dice site. All data in this document is from this tech recruiting survey
unless otherwise indicated.
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