With the UK recruitment sector showing signs of recovery there’s never been a better time to mingle.  Sharing thoughts with peers is both invigorating and educational, all the while adding important values to your personal brand.

Many recruiters view LinkedIn as an enormous job board or talent pool, which, arguably, it is.  However, to me this belies the premise on which the social media platform was designed in the first place – to help and encourage professionals to make tangible, valuable, contacts; building important business networks along the way.

In our evolving industry we should each be looking at ways to extend not just what but who we know – an age-old adage that should particularly resonate.

For recruiters LinkedIn should be viewed as more than a talent-attraction channel.  It’s a chance to accentuate both the personal and company brand.  In each of these groups you have the opportunity to do just that.

Get involved…!

Webrecruit Transforming Recruitment Online

Created: May 2009 | Members: 35,838

The self-proclaimed world’s first flat-fee online recruitment service created this group in May 2009 and makes this list by virtue of its UK management team. Outgunning the rest of the groups in terms of member numbers, its relevance is most significant with the regularly topical weekly Announcements, allegedly penned by recruitment legend himself, James Caan.

It is a generic group with all sectors represented and there is decent content to be found. Slightly irritating is the jobs area, which appears to be an hourly update of the manager’s latest conquests!

UK Recruitment Professionals

Created: June 2009 | Members: 4,567

“Aimed at Recruitment Consultants, Head-hunters, Managers, Executives and Directors alike this group helps develop your business further”. At least that’s the hook for your membership. The content isn’t bad but you’ll want to join this group for the contacts as much as any interesting updates you’re likely to receive.

Fair play to group owner, Wendy Overton, for seemingly ensuring membership remains tight.

The Recruitment Society

Created: June 2008 | Members: 2,192

The Recruitment Society is the UK voice & Membership Association for best practice and innovation in resourcing. Membership and community is inclusive to all professionals with an interest in recruitment, recruiting, retaining and developing people in the workplace.

Okay, so cynics will point to this group being a vehicle for Recruitment Society promotion but there is no obligation and manager, Steve Huxham, drops lots of useful information into the discussion area and makes a point of stirring conjecture.

Many recruitment big-wigs hang out here.

UK Recruiter Group

Created: September 2007 | Members: 1,947

By virtue of its members this group should be better than it is. Owner, Louise Triance, has a habit of attracting some of the most renowned names in recruitment to her various business activities, and she’s done it again with this collection of industry luminaries. So it’s a shame that more of them don’t contribute.

Still, if you’re after recruitment contacts from all aspects of the cycle, you’re likely to find them here.

RCEuro

Created: August 2008 | Members: 1,661

RCEURO offers a range of vertical community applications & services founded to serve the European staffing/HR sector. It offers the European staffing professional a community of shared best practices, an opportunity to partner, and knowledge sharing within the European recruitment community.

Whilst not technically a solely UK-focussed group, you can’t ignore the relevancy of the content and, above almost all others, group manager, Alan Whitford, works tirelessly to enhance the reputation of recruitment, whilst providing a platform for recruiters to embrace an evolving industry.

UK Recruitment Professionals Network

Created: May 2009 | Members: 1,035

“This group aims to bring together some of the UK's best, most professional and most creative recruiters in the UK recruitment market today. From CEO's to ambitious, professional trainee's looking to share ideas, seek advice or ultimately networking with like minded professionals I hope that this group delivers on all levels.”

Group manager, Dave Hardy’s, opening gambit says all the right stuff and much of its content supports that. It could definitely use some more contributors, though.

Ask the Recruiter

Created: October 2009 | Members: 846

A sub-group of the popular UK Marketing Lounge (21,000 UK marketing professionals), this group was created to encourage all members to ask questions related to the staffing process, from finding a job to keeping one. Its success is reliant on content and there is a lack of this, particularly from the recruiters.

A drive in membership would encourage contributions to what is the most relevant group on this list for business and personal branding.

If you’re a marketing recruiter you should join this group.

UK Recruitment Directors

Created: May 2009 | Members: 756

A space for Directors of UK based Recruitment Businesses to communicate, share ideas/opportunities and network.
To join, you must be a Director or a UK Recruitment Company - Simple!

There is no doubt the membership a criterion is adhered to, which makes it a good place to hang out. It’s just a shame there aren’t more thinking the same.

APSCo - Association of Professional Staffing Companies

Created: July 2009 | Members: 700

APSCo is the UK’s only recruitment industry body solely representing the interests of recruitment organisations engaged in the acquisition of business professionals on behalf of clients, either on a permanent or flexible basis.

Another group on a self-promotion trail – possibly – but the members and content make it worth investigating. If you’re serious about the recruitment industry and have long-since tired of REC’s apathy, check this out.

It would be good to see the industry sectors broken into sub-groups.

UK Recruitment Network 4 Recruiters

Created: April 2009 | Members: 624

This group aims at bringing UK based recruitment consultants to connect and share ideas with other UK based recruiters and recruitment companies. You may be looking for opportunities outside your organization or quite simply looking to share your ideas and experiences with active candidates on the market on how best to secure their next recruitment opportunity.

In principle a perfect use for a LinkedIn recruitment group. In practice, whilst the content is good there isn’t enough of it. There is also no obvious sharing of candidates. What a shock.

So there you have it.  If you think I’ve missed any obvious UK-based recruitment groups out of this list please detail below.

Simon Lewis | Editor | Only Marketing Jobs

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