For anyone seeing this blog and thinking “oh no, another lecture on social media. Resist the challenge to move on because underneath LinkedIn is actually a thrilling story of;
- Sophisticated technology enabling searches and location of the most well-hidden candidates and Clients
- Advanced approach techniques. Personnel Selection staff have invested in these.
- Sympathetic interviewing leading to many successful match-ups between those Clients and candidates
The chances are, that like most people these days, you use at least one of the social media platforms on a regular basis. For most people social media will usually mean one of the big trio of platforms, Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. If you are reading this, you probably follow Personnel Selection on one or more of these.
With the advent of social media, a whole new way of communicating opened up, and it is almost unimaginable that any business would not embrace the opportunities it offers. Every platform requires a different approach in terms of content, and, of course, users tend to have a different relationship with that content, but they all have one thing in common, they allow business to reach out to people.
LinkedIn is, without doubt, a useful tool for recruiters because, if used correctly, it can be a huge advantage when it comes to:
- Sourcing candidates
- Spotting up-and-coming talent
- Identifying and informing people of opportunities
- Accessing the writings of thought leaders and experts via the pulse news feeds and groups.
These are just a few of the reasons it has become a part of the general strategy of recruitment agencies.
If you want to keep up to date with developments and trends within any given industry, the chances are that there will be a group or news stream dedicated to it. These not only offer the opportunity to keep up to date, but they also mean you can take part in the discussions and publish your own work into the same groups. Done right, this enhances your reputation as an expert in your field.
Basically, LinkedIn is a huge database of the skills, work, and life experience of millions of individuals. For potential employers, this is pure gold. To be able to access a potential pool of candidates that is likely to contain every suitable kind of person seems a dream come true. However, as is often the case, the potential is very different to putting it into practice.
To successfully utilise the employment potential of LinkedIn, you really do need the right skills and a wider understanding of the recruitment arena. Searching for people is not as simple as just typing something into the box and pressing enter. Neither is the content of linkedIn nothing more than a glorified bank of CV material that will come together like a Rubik cube on demand. LinkedIn needs careful handling to get the most out of it. There are practiced methods that Personnel Selection use to effectively manage the amount of available information, reach out to potential employees and encourage passive and semi-passive candidates to come forward.
This one small article is not big enough to discuss fully how LinkedIn is used by Personnel Selection to bridge the gap between a potential employer and the candidate because there is simply too much to be said. What is clear, however, even from the list of benefits above is that anyone can see the reason Personnel Selection maintain not only an active presence on LinkedIn but embrace it as an effective recruitment method.
