Apple launched its much feted iPad in the US last week. The PR frenzy that business creates around everything it does is incredible to watch. I for one will be getting an iPad the first day it launches here. That’s partly because I am always an early adopter, but in this case I am fascinated at how this product might move on what we are doing as a business further. This got me thinking about technology in recruitment - or the lack of it. So as a recruitment company, where should technology be helping me?

Well for starters, take a good hard look at what your business should be doing. Basically from a sourcing perspective your value is in building a high quality, informed and engaged candidate pool. This is singly the hardest thing to do in recruitment; as the market gets more competitive, you need to create not customers (candidates) but real ’fans’.

Apple doesn’t have customers, it has fans. At Chemistry we measure our success by how many fans we have. Customers buy from you, fans get everyone else to buy from you (called referrals in our biz). Technology is the No.1 enabler for any recruitment business to reach out to potential fans. However, customers respond to job ads, fans are created through an experience, an experience that today will possibly start with your website.

Look at your website. Is it informative, interactive or just a brochure/job board? I know it’s the latter because most of them are. If you really want engaged candidates (fans) who listen to you, you need to be engaging, informing and entertaining, but most of all communicating. What content on your website is truly engaging? Are you sharing information, giving an opinion? Are you using video? Tweet feeds? What are you doing on your website that engages your potential fans in the journey you are on? You are, hopefully, a human being; communicate like one!

For example, Twitter and Facebook; these are NOT tools to push jobs to candidates with. They are tools to inform, distribute opinion and engage people with. All your consultants should be Tweeting, not because it creates revenue today, but because it engages people in what you are doing. It makes you human and in our business people quite like that. Facebook is not a place that you push jobs to candidates; it’s a place you make fans - fans of your business, fans of your consultants. Chemistry creates fans by offering an opinion, engaging in debate but most of all delivering a consistent service through technology and the subsequent interaction, consistent with the brand values. We use technology to communicate the message every day, without fail.

All your consultants should be Tweeting, not because it creates revenue today, but because it engages people in what you are doing. It makes you human and in our business people quite like that.

So from a candidate perspective your technology should be helping you communicate but always from a human perspective. Emailed newsletters are not human, they are a nuisance. Salary surveys aren’t a cool piece of marketing collateral, they are dull, slightly stupid and old hat. Creating a place where candidates can share their experiences of companies, the salaries they pay, the culture that exists etc is cool, informative and will show that you are interested in THEM. It so happens that candidates quite like that, too!

Today, you need to create fans. Technology is a cost-effective enabler for you to do this, so put down the spear, pick up the iPad and start…