Hire Strategies Blog

Is Linkedin really as good as we "think" or is it already an urban myth?

This question has been nagging me for a while. So many recruiters have claimed that they get all their hires from the job boards they use yet in reality they have no decent tracking to know where their hires really come from. Now Linkedin is flavour of the month but is it really just a load of hocus pocus? Has anyone got any real decent stats to prove their claims? I wanted to find out first hand so started digging with a Linkedin poll. 

How often do you login to Linkedin?

Job boards vs. social networks. #in

The job boards pretty much took the entire job advertising market from print in around 10 years. The social networks could take the market from the job boards in maybe half that time; so it is now the job boards market to lose. Here's a few things they could try to save it.

I am man - I am Google. I am woman - I am Social.

Search hasn't changed but social has changed the game as far as advertising is concerned. But what do we men know anyway?

Pages, pages everywhere so where does my career site fit?

(Photo courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/patrick-smith-photography)

As a recruiter you have your coveted career site but you also have Pages; Facebook, Linkedin, Google+ and no doubt there will be more incarnations to follow. But as more "brands" push people to their Pages rather than their website (X-Factor is a typical example) where does that leave your own site? Redundant or different? The road ahead is daunting.

Would you refuse applicants without a social profile?

What no LinkedIn? What no Twitter? What no Xing? What no Facebook? Well you won't be able to register with us then until you get one. I mean, we need your Klout score.

Of course you would never, ever, ever do such a thing. It is absolutely proposterous and open for so much trouble from the PC police. But, already in certain cases to apply for a job online a CV is mandatory. As is a telephone number. And an e-mail address.

Ambitious? Well maybe your Klout score does matter.

Over the last few months there have been a few posts and discussions about the value of your social media profile from a recruitment perspective. Most suggested it didn’t matter how well you connected you were. I disagree.

If you are highly ambitious you will want to work for a company with ambitions. Companies such as Ford and Dell are very much focused on weaving social into their corporate DNA. Salesforce.com talk about the social enterprise and how the companies of tomorrow will be led by the young people of today who have grown up with the Internet and social. These companies will be connected to everything and everyone and they are very ambitious; they want to be market leaders. Their employees, at every level, will be connected. No questions about it.

So if you are a social laggard, which is absolutely fine, just don’t expect to have the edge at an interview for your dream job with that dream company. Little Johnnie snot face with his amazing Klout score may just nudge ahead; courtesy of his friends, followers and influencers!

Please note: I don't just mean Klout score; it is just one example of social measurement.

Goodbye Linkedin the networking site, hello Linkedin the job board....

Did I really say that? Call Linkedin a job board? Shame on me. Maybe they are a CV database as well? With some workflow and filtering capability? And a lot more on its way.

But so what if they are a job board. I had this debate a while ago and was told that Linkedin was NOT a job board. Beginning to look like one to me.

I remember oh so well my time with Jobs.co.uk PLC and our major investor Tim Watts then Chairman of Pertemps wanted to build the biggest CV database on the premise that he who owns the CV has the keys to the castle. Well, love him or hate him looks like he was pretty damn right. Around $8bn right. He had his hands on the treasured URL (www.jobs.co.uk) but unfortunatley it got re-sold and the rest they say is history. Or Linkedin.  

Long live Linkedin.

Linkedin apply button; much ado about nothing.....

Interesting that Linkedin announce this yet to be confirmed game changing apply button so soon after their IPO. But is it a great idea, set to change the world of recuitment or is it just a bit of hype with little or no substance? Is it yet more of the post-IPO love affair where both parties make little sense because they can see no wrong in their perfect little world?

Brave New Talent compared to G4S Talent Community

Having stirred up such emotions and opinions after my last post So Brave New Talent, WTF are you? I thought I'd do a comparison of the Open Community versus the Private Community idea.