Is LinkedIn really that great for recruitment?

Since it’s development and launch on May 5th 2003 LinkedIn has become the primary, go-to social network for professionals. As a tool for advancing your working network it is undoubtedly one of the best – but when it comes to recruitment is it really all it’s cracked up to be? It’s official, LinkedIn is definitely something which needs to be considered for any recruitment professional. It would be difficult to argue otherwise when you consider the facts. A study carried out in 2014 claimed to discover that 1 out of 3 professionals on the planet have a profile. After all the network lends itself entirely to the professional – it gives them a platform to showcase their experience in a more in depth fashion than a traditional CV. For recruiters, LinkedIn could in theory be an incredibly useful tool. Essentially being a vast database of experienced professionals, it allows you to not only see candidates who are actively searching for work but the most suitable candidates in general. But is such a huge amount of people really such a positive thing? After all, 364 million members is quite a pile to have to sift through. Not to mention, if you are attempting to source talent through the social network In order to give you the best idea of how useful a tool LinkedIn really is for recruitment, we’ve listed the pros and cons below… Pros of LinkedIn for recruitment The amount of members: Depending on how you look at it, the sheer size of LinkedIn users can be seen as a positive. It allows you to pinpoint future talent who might not necessarily turn up through other traditional recruitment methods. If you are willing to fit the bill for an upgraded account, you will be in a good position to discover these people with less effort. Clear understanding of candidates: LinkedIn profiles can give you a far better understanding of a candidate before the interview stage – right down to being able to see a profile picture. Search ability: LinkedIn’s search platform is intricately developed to allow you to hone down on exactly what you are looking for so that you are able to specify exactly the sort of candidate you need. Readily available, easily accessed references: LinkedIn’s primary networking module means that users are able to recommend other uses and endorse them for the skills they claim to have. This means that you can pretty much rely on their claims and references are normally easier to find. Cons of LinkedIn for recruitment Overwhelming database of talent: Unless you can fork out for the corporate recruiter plans which make it easier to get to the right candidates, there might prove to be too many users on LinkedIn to source talent with any clarity. Difficult in attracting candidates: Many possible candidates won’t be actively seeking work – and a lot of the time, the best ones will be receiving job offers constantly – so even if they are staring you in the face it can prove difficult to attract the right person. This also gives them the primary negotiating power. Pro-versions can be very expensive: This is possibly the biggest negative for sourcing talent through LinkedIn. Unless you are willing to spend a considerable amount of time and effort filtering through users, the free version won’t get you very far – and prices can soar in the corporate recruiter plans. Learning the ropes: It takes a lot of time to become a LinkedIn expert – time which could be better spent on actively sourcing candidates through recruitment methods that you have a better grasp of. Overall, LinkedIn is an undeniably powerful resource in the recruitment world. However, to make use of it you need to really invest in it and therefore it may not be right for every business. The trick is learning to understand where the best candidates for your industry are hanging out. We have decades of experience in sourcing and attracting the best candidates for a wide range of industries. If you’re looking for recruitment solutions tailored to you – why not get in touch today?