Why LinkedIn is Key to Your Recruitment Plans

It doesn’t matter whether you’re hiring… or looking to be hired. LinkedIn is the key to many of your recruitment plans

Something like 99.4% of all recruitment touches LinkedIn at some point in the process

• Talent is there hoping to be found
• Companies and recruiters are there searching for the talent needles in an employable people haystack
• Vacancies are being posted, waiting for candidates to see them and put themselves forward
• Interviewers and HR managers are verifying CV details with LinkedIn profiles
• Interviewees are checking out hiring managers career history before those all important ‘get-to-know-you, could-you-be-the-one’ interviews

Whatever your reason for using LinkedIn, if you’ve been looking to hire or be hired you’ve been using LinkedIn. And so has everyone else!

What people find on LinkedIn shapes their decisions about moving forward. Like what you see, leads to a yes. Anything else will sooner or later become a no

Getting your LinkedIn presence right is key to helping more people fall into the yes camp

It will also help you be found for often, for more relevant reasons, which will also increase the number of people in your yes camp

There are many social networking sites and places that claim to be ‘the place’ for business professionals to brand themselves and network. In the twelve and a half years I’ve been using LinkedIn, both as an active, at the coal face, recruiter and headhunter and as an independent LinkedIn Profile Writer, Strategist and Trainer, none of the other sites I’ve seen have been able to hold a candle to LinkedIn

Even in the early days (as member 444,000) I knew it was going to have a big impact on the hiring game. To be fair, that’s what motivated me to join. I’m not convinced they’ll hold the market eight years from now – unless there are immense changes afoot we can’t see yet – but, at the moment, they are a key part to the recruitment process. It’s therefore imperative to get your LinkedIn presence right

When your company is hiring, potential talent is going to look at your profile – even if you are not in HR and you’re not the hiring manager. What they think of your career progression, will give them an insight into what their future may look like

When you’re going for an interview, people within the hiring organisation are going to check out your LinkedIn profile. Maybe that’s where they found you in the first place?

I’ve talked a lot about the move from a job for life, to people no longer even having a set career anymore. As you move around more and change direction as you go, it’s important to take control of your own brand. Managing your career is your job now. How you talk about what you’ve done and how you position transitions and directional change is more important than how long you stayed in each company

It might feel that I’m only talking to people looking to be hired with that last statement. When really it’s true for everyone. Why will talent want to join your company? What do your best brains bring to your company table and where did they accumulate all that wonderful knowledge?

If I had the time I would offer to rewrite everyone’s LinkedIn profile, I believe it’s SO important. Many people either don’t understand the significance, or more often than not, understand, but don’t know how to take the right steps towards ‘profile greatness’

The question is, if having the right LinkedIn presence ensures talent or that new job will be attracted to you, can you afford not to get it right?