Ever wonder what attracts employers to a prospective candidate on a LinkedIn profile? Is it the number of recommendation, connections or members of several groups, or your description on the profile? The sum of it all with a careful balance and attention to each of these factors attracts employers to contact and reach out to potential talent.

According to an interesting finding on 100 HR heads in UK by Norrie Johnston Recruitment in a report titled, ‘An Executive Recruitment Game Changer?’ sheds light on the role of LinkedIn in enticing recruiters to view your job profile and get in touch with you with potential talent pool. There has been much talk about the role of LinkedIn in the recruitment process. It’s easy to see why.

LinkedIn’s biggest source of revenue and growth is from in-house and external recruiters who use the platform to look for talent (this group made up 57% of LinkedIn’s Q4 revenue). But what does LinkedIn’s rise mean more specifically for employers?

However only one in four (25%) of the HR heads interviewed says that their senior executive recruitment is purely handled by an internal recruitment team. On average 73% report that recruitment agencies or head-hunter firms are still involved in their senior recruitment, rising to 79% among the biggest employers. At its most basic level, LinkedIn is used to check out senior candidates – with 46% of organisations overall and 59% of those with over 5,000 employees using it in this way.

What matters to HR heads when they look at LinkedIn Profile?

1. Description of your job roles and experience is of paramount importance; however the number of connections you hold in common is not so much valued.
2. Skills and endorsements are more important for recruiters over recommendations. Given recruiters highly use LinkedIn for background check; it is not surprising that large organisations give greater importance to all the information that is presented socially to employers on a LinkedIn profile. However from a public sector perspective, it places lowest value to each of the elements described on a LinkedIn profile.
3. Quantity of recommendations does not count, but quality of content does. What the recommendation has to say about a talent or prospective candidate is more important over the number of recommendations secured.

See: Recruitathon: Innovative Recruitment is the Way to Go

4. While many candidates may like to pursue larger number of connections, but this scores only 3.5 out of 10, which is less important the group memberships you are part of.
5. Those spending lot of time contributing to groups, should note that it is not going to impress the prospective employers either. The groups you choose to join are more important, than your postings and comments actively on the group.
6. For logistics and retail companies, the skills and expertise endorsements are the most important thing over description that is valued by a prospective employer.
7. 40% employers see LinkedIn as a brand builder. LinkedIn is a tool they use to promote their employer brand; the interviewees are less clear about how this can be achieved. For instance, the company page is the most widely used place that companies promote their employer brand but that on average is only mentioned by 8%. There is a lack of clarity on the organisations harnessing LinkedIn’s brand building power, because company’s LinkedIn presence is often managed by the marketing team, whereas interviewees are headed by the HR function.

Could LinkedIn replace traditional recruitment agencies? Only one of the 100 senior HR executives believes LinkedIn will make recruitment firms redundant and no one believes it will replace job boards. This is because, while it supports the process, LinkedIn is still seen to have many limitations. The most obvious of these is the veracity of the content. Almost half (47%) say endorsements are not reliable; they are too easily generated and so cannot be fully trusted.

The report concludes to say, “LinkedIn is an additional way to promote roles but it isn’t transforming this aspect of the process. Only 31% place senior roles on LinkedIn. Indeed, as many use it simply to headhunt for talent. This is because the majority argue that senior candidates aren’t logging into LinkedIn regularly enough to be reached.”

“There are also issues of validity and privacy to consider – both the privacy of the candidate and the employer. Plus LinkedIn advertising may appear to provide a saving, but for many it’s a false economy as for 25% wading through such a large pool of candidates may involve a huge amount of internal team time. LinkedIn isn’t usurping the recruitment process, but it is powering it.”

Also read: Do You Hire for Attitude or Aptitude?

Image credit: blog.leonardo.com