The Recruiting Network

HRM. Professionals are signing up to your website at a rate of 23 every minute. Do you think networking has become more important in recent years?

GS. I think the numbers speak for themselves, so it’s obviously something that has always been important. There’s a lot of technology out that lets you visualize and take advantage of the networking that’s been part of business forever. Some people are natural at networking; they get in there, they meet as many people as they can and they connect with as many as they can. On the flip side, some people are very new to networking. It’s not part of their natural personality as it were, and we are able to help them discover the benefits of what networking can do for you in your professional life.

What is important is building up relationship credit. Being able to provide value to colleagues you respect and build up credit so you get some value back in the future. People feel great if they can forward an opportunity to a colleague, people really enjoy doing that. It builds up a lot of value. The people who are beneficiaries of that kind of networking will always remember that.

Networking remains a great place to look for new opportunities, jobs, investments, partners or prospects; and it remains relatively low effort compared to the old networking of actually having to get out there and go to scores of conferences. What’s more, people are using professional networking to be better prepared for meetings. I can’t imagine going into a business meeting with a new prospect or customer and not looking up the background on people I’m meeting with.

HRM. How do you think advances in technology have affected the way networking is used in the recruitment process or is it more of a generational change than a technological one?

GS. I think that technology makes it much easier, and much more approachable to really bind the benefits of professional networking, but I don’t think it’s generational. Of course, Generation Y has grown up with computers, but each generation is drawn to whatever tool they feel most comfortable with and many people continue to use multiple networking tools.

HRM. What is your opinion on how networking websites like Facebook are used in the recruitment process? Do you think employees should be looking at public profile sites when it comes to recruitment?

GS. I’m very biased, of course. But as a general statement, I think savvy recruiters will use any resource that can give them a competitive edge to find the candidate they may not otherwise find. Whether that is through social networking, Google searches or any other name sourcing tools out there on the web, recruiters will use a little bit of all of them.

What they actually use to connect, reach out and build up credibility with that candidate is then usually one type of social networking tool. And what tools they use really depend on who they are trying to source and what roles they’re trying to fill. If they’re trying to fill clerks or internships, they may use one tool. If they’re trying to source CTO’s or sales managers, they come to someone liked LinkedIn.

HRM. Do you think employers who are using public profile sites for recruitment purposes breach rights to privacy, or are potential applicants negating their rights by uploading the information in the first place?

GS. Negating their rights is a little strong. The information that’s on these networking sites is 100 percent opt-in. You get to control what that information is and you have some control over who gets to see what.

Of course, one of the great uses for these networking sites is being found. You can be found by anybody: by colleagues, by old schoolmates, you can be found for new opportunities, of course; found to be able to answer questions, for recommendations, and also for introductions. If you draw up the spectrum of networking, at one end is “go away, nobody home, leave me alone”. And the other end of the spectrum is, “I will connect with anybody.” I think the right way to be is probably in the middle somewhere and being thoughtful about what information you put out there. If you’re thinking about putting up proprietary information, or something that you don’t want other people to find, then maybe the web is not the best place for that.

HRM. How do you see that the products you’re creating at the moment are solving, what you refer to as, mission-critical problems? And how do you see the recruitment process going forward from here?

GS. For any company that is built to last and focused on growing, what’s got to be very important is attracting the best and retaining the best. So we help these companies fill those senior and hard to fill roles that help build a company, this attracts other employees to that company, because one of the greatest drivers of retention is enjoying who you work with and being challenged by the people you work with.

Making sure that you’re building a team that not only attracts others but it is driving your core strategy is critical to long-term success. From our discussions with customers, we hear that 25 to 35 percent of hires come from the employee referral network, hiring people that your employees know already. That’s a very powerful recruiting source and using a professional network can help extend the size of that tool. It’s not only finding the candidate on LinkedIn, but finding someone who’s willing to refer one of their trusted colleagues. There’s a lot of value in that, and those employees tend to stay longer and tend to be higher performers.

About George Seiters

George is the Senior Director of Corporate Solutions Product Marketing at LinkedIn, focused on helping organizations and companies scale the benefits of professional networking across teams, geographies or the entire company; providing the kind of enterprise level service these companies are expecting through unique tools, access and support.

Networking numbers

• 52 percent of employers connect internal and remote staff through networking sites
• 35 percent of candidates use networking sites to find work
• 47 percent use networking sites to connect with potential clients
• 60 percent of all jobs are found through networking

13 uses of social networking

1. Attract more clients
   
2. Get a referral, not an introduction
   
3. Build a strategic alliance
   
4. Media exposure and publicity
   
5. Company blogging
   
6. Prepare candidates
   
7. Improve industry/competitor intelligence
   
8. Peer benchmarking
   
9. Personal branding
   
10. Personal career development
    
11. Research
    
12. Getting suppliers
    
13. Enhancing business trips