HCL Technologies: Twitter recruitment

The IT major has launched what it calls the first ever global Twitter recruitment campaign titled #CoolestInterviewEver.

#CoolestInterviewEver, which began with a 30-day teaser campaign to test waters, is being run for three consecutive weeks, connecting participants from all over the world with HCL HR executives through Twitter. The campaign has been launched in partnership with ITSA Brand Solutions and FrogIdeas.

The top five applicants will participate in one-on-one interviews over the social media platform. In the third and final week, HCL will select a winning candidate to serve for 12 months in a role chosen from a given list. These "cool" job profiles are tailor made for those who are young-at-heart and excel in their fields of expertise.

The campaign has generated impressions of more than 360 million, garnering 3994 Retweets and 4862 Favorites. It also had a healthy Video Views of 42,625 and was ranked No. 1 on Google in 21 days for the keyword, 'coolest interview ever'.

In addition to an opportunity to work on strategic projects with HCL, the winner will receive up to $75,000, as more specifically detailed in the terms and conditions, and access to an HCL leadership mentor in his or her particular field.

Speaking about the campaign, Prithvi Shergill, chief human resources officer, HCL Technologies, says, "Over the past decade, HCL has built upon its Employees First, Customers Second management philosophy to unleash the innovative thinking of empowered employees. This social media campaign is an extension of our employee-centric culture, designed to uncover new talent in the IT field while strengthening our position as a progressive organisation utilising new age media to refresh the recruitment process."

Apurva Chamaria, director and head, global brand and digital marketing, HCL Technologies, states, "At HCL we always believe in creating 'best in class' or 'first in class' global campaigns and the #coolestinterviewever remains true to the spirit. We have pushed the boundaries of Twitter as a platform and the response has been enormous. Both ITSA and FrogIdeas have done a phenomenal job of bringing the campaign vision to life."

In 2012, Shine.com tied up with social recruitment platform MyParichay to enable a recruiter to reach out to personal networks of their employees on Facebook, match the skills and requirements to those in the extended network and use the referral feature to connect with potential candidates.

In an earlier afaqs! story, job portal Shine.com stated that hiring through social media has now reached mainstream recruitment as a credible tool in a savvy recruiter's toolbox. "Eighty five per cent of Indian jobseekers use some or the other online social networking platform for finding a job, and find both Facebook friends and LinkedIn connections useful in finding jobs," the company had informed.