I have noticed that many companies are using social networking tools like LinkedIn and Twitter as new channels to identify and prospect for top talent. These tools are increasing the velocity and decreasing the cost of talent searches in many companies. I recently spoke to a senior leader of talent acquisition who has driven over $1 million dollars of cost out of the recruiting process by eliminating search firm fees, while increasing the process velocity, simply by adopting a social media recruiting strategy. He indicated that persons his team has contacted, though not looking for a new job, where willing to entertain conversations about leaving their current employer at a relatively high rate. As these recruiting practices continue to gain popularity, it is fairly easy to see that the “war for talent” may well be heating up very soon.

Key implications of the proliferation of social networking recruiting strategies:

• Top talent will be easier to identify by recruiters, thus lowering costs and increasing velocity
• More top talent will be exposed to recruiters at all times, thus increasing the risk of talent flight
• Employers will need to focus more on top talent retention in the future, thus increasing the importance of knowing why people choose to stay or leave a company

These implications are not new, but social networking strategies imply that companies and HR professionals will need to shift from traditional retention strategies to more individualized and targeted retention strategies.