Manish Prasad from Videocon Mobile is the first recruiter to get 1L+ followers on NaukriRecruiter. Here is what Manish says about his achievement as told to Vridhi Chowdhry, Naukri Product Team.

How has been your journey with NaukriRecruiter so far?

I created my NaukriRecruiter profile in September 2013, when a colleague shared information about Naukrirecruiter platform that it can be used for closing positions as well. Soon I got 5000 followers on Naukrirecruiter, but the number remained stagnant at 5000 for a long time. I had a discussion with Naukri.com team about what can be done to increase followers. Then I updated my profile and posted jobs to get responses. After getting responses, I contacted the jobseekers who had responded.

Now I want to reach the 10L follower mark. I am thankful to NaukriRecruiter to provide a wonderful platform to connect with jobseekers.

How does it feel to be the first recruiter to have 1L+ jobseekers following your updates?

Jobseekers that I called for interviews in my company recognized me as they had seen my profile a lot on NaukriRecruiter. It feels good to be recognized asa good recruiter. I want to thank Naukri.com for providing a platform to stay in touch with interested jobseekers. I am grateful to all my profile followers for helping me reach this point. I will ensure that I stay in touch with my followers and take care of responses that I receive from jobseekers. I hope that I will be able to hire more from NaukriRecruiter by reaching out to many more jobseekers.

What expectations did you have when you created your NaukriRecruiter profile?

There was a promotion contest running on NaukriRecruiter in which goodies were sent to recruiters. My colleague told that you can get proper responses from NaukriRecruiter as well. Initially I didn’t understand the purpose of this platform. But after using it regularly, I found it useful. Besides the NaukriRecruiter interface has changed over time. More useful features like segregation of responses have been introduced.

How has NaukriRecruiter changed your way of hiring since you joined?

I am into hiring since October 2006. 60-70% of my recruitment depends on Naukri, 20% from references and 20% from social media.

In the last 6 months i.e. since I crossed 20k followers on NaukriRecruiter, I posted more than 50 positions on NaukriRecruiter. I got huge responses from NaukriRecruiter. For example I got 1000+ responses for a job I posted in last October. I have been able to close about 5-6 positions from NaukriRecruiter responses alone.

I also posted some 10 senior level positions. For example, for Business partner HR position, I got 221 responses and I was able to shortlist few candidates and schedule them for interviews.

What does it take to reach 1L follower mark?

The number of my followers was stagnant for a long time. So I had a discussion with Naukri.com team about what can be done to increase followers. Then I updated my profile and posted jobs to get responses.

After getting responses, I contacted the jobseekers who had responded to help jobseekers in getting jobs. If a jobseeker sends a query in message, I give proper inputs. In my opinion, taking care of responses from jobseekers is very important for increasing followers. For example, I directly tell the reason behind selection / rejection. By doing this, jobseekers who have contacted me will always remember me.

Further, I enhanced my profile by filling all the details. I shared my Naukrirecruiter profile with Videocon Facebook Careers page and on my LinkedIn profile. I don’t have many followers on Twitter. So sharing my profile on Facebook and Linked In contributed to increase in my followers.

How have so many followers helped you in recruitment?

I get huge responses by posting jobs on Naukrirecruiter due to my follower network. I have got good responses for some senior positions as well.

What is the most useful feature of NaukriRecruiter?

Inbox is the most important for proper screening of candidate, especially since there is a link to view responses of specific jobs form the profile page itself. Showing matching applications in Inbox is extremely useful.

Sharing Naukrirecruiter profile and jobs on social networks is very useful as it helps my network know about my recruitment profile. It is very convenient for jobseekers as they can follow my profile or apply to jobs in a single click.

In your view, how should the NaukriRecruiter ecosystem develop going forward?

I would like to see shortlisting from NaukriRecruiter platform made easier. It would be great if I am able to send more updates to my followers other than jobs. For e.g. I want to thank my followers for helping me reach 1L follower mark.

It will also be good if good recruiters are showcased to jobseekers.