Dealers have embraced social media to sell more cars and generate more business in the service drive but most lag in using social media to hire the best employees. The very same things that drive customers to your site and "close" the deal can be used to bring in higher quality applicants for your open positions.

1) The average career page on dealer website is buried and if an applicant does manage to find it the content is less than compelling. Update that page with a video of real employees explaining why they love working at your dealership. List the benefits of working for your company. Have a unique page for each new job opening (and remember not to re-post the same job over and over but instead update and improve content each time you re-post). Don't forget to use your company name in the page title. If you just use "Senior Service Tech" as the page title you are competing and losing with the job boards. Don't forget a Meta tag.  Basic SEO practices sure, but usually forgotten when it comes to the "career page".

2) Employee referrals are a great source of quality applicants and good employees- so do you encourage your employees to post job opening at your dealership on their Facebook page? If you don't (and please offer a referral bonus) then you are missing out. Encourage employees to tweet job opening too. If you don't have a separate career Facebook page, get one.

3) Create a social media policy and have all employees sign it. Employees can be your best brand ambassadors and recruiting sources- but they need guidelines on what is acceptable and what is not acceptable. Given that 90% of hiring managers and recruiters say they use social media and 68% say they have not hired a person due to information they found on the internet it's critical you have a policy. Most employees:

• Don't know that they owe you duty of loyalty when they’re off the clock.
•  Don't understand the nature of social media.
•  Don't realize that the Federal Trade Commission has a requirement regarding disclosure.

Social media is not just a tool for selling cars. It's just as powerful in workforce management.

Want to learn more about social hiring?  Continue to visit www.dealerelite.net

Need a legally approved policy on social media? Email me at kcarlson@kpaonline.com and I'll send you one.