Recruiting experienced hires via social media is more challenging than tapping into the graduate talent pool, according to Quezia Soares, recruitment marketing manager at management and IT consultancy Accenture UK.

This is because the experienced audience is “fragmented and dispersed”, she told the audience at the Social Recruiting Conference 2011 in London this morning [30 June].

At the experienced level, potential recruits may also have been subjected to “misconceptions and anecdotes” about what it is like to work at a particular business through word-of-mouth, which can increase recruiters’ challenges, Soares added.

As a result, the organisation must pursue “an insight-driven relationship” with potential recruits in which they can access information about what it is actually like to work there, she said.

At Accenture UK, potential experienced recruits have been pinpointed through experience appearing in their profile online. The relationship has then been progressed to invitations to ‘in person’ events. Potential attendees must apply to attend, with the less promising filtered out and not invited while the most promising are invited. “We want to meet the right people,” she said.

At one such event, 30 potential recruits attended, with 14 now undergoing the recruitment process. Managing recruitment in this way helps Accenture UK build its talent pipeline as well as hire top recruits more immediately, Soares said.

The Social Recruiting Conference 2011 continues this afternoon.