Why Recruiters LOVE Linkedin and HR leaders might HATE Linkedin.

Top 3 Reasons Why Recruiters (both corporate and external) Love Linkedin:

1) LinkedIn has become the best hunting ground for recruiters.
2) As more companies are asking their employees to become participants in “social media” candidate referral programs, more employees are using sites such as Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter – making it insanely easy for recruiters to recruit them.
3) Linkedin allows recruiters to easily build their target candidate pool.

Top 3 Reasons Why HR Leaders Might Hate Linkedin:

1) Your competition can now easily see who you have just hired, the secret ‘human capital’ of your company is no longer a secret.
2) If your employees like to show-off their work by posting on their profiles what they do, then your competition can get some insights into what your company might be building.
3) Increase turnover and backfill cost. Your competition can now easily send a message to your key employees and invite them to tea.

These are my observations, now chime in with yours! Frankly, I'm torn about this one. I simply LOVE using Linkedin to recruit but I also hate to deal with turnover issues. Ugh!

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Comment by Derdiver on June 13, 2013 at 7:04pm: Lisa,

If you have a GOOD company than people will not want to leave. If you have a GOOD company people will want to come and work there. It is all about product. People can want me to come work for them. I have to want and go work for them.

Comment by Lisa Zee on June 13, 2013 at 8:35pm: True. Easier said than done...

Comment by Derdiver on June 13, 2013 at 8:41pm: I do not disagree but that is why companies are failing and others are growing. I had a consultant leave for LESS money because the company she went to was just better. A great actor once said acting was easy dying was easy comedy is hard. He should have tried recruiting.

Comment by Lisa Zee on June 13, 2013 at 9:02pm: Ah, the grass is always greener elsewhere. See what she says in a year or so after the honeymoon stage is over. ;-) Keeping a good company good for long is even more difficult now.

Comment by Derdiver on June 13, 2013 at 9:05pm: Sadly in this case I agreed with her. All good. She is a referall machine and people like her on NOT on Linkedin. Infact very few are.

Comment by Cathy Mannis on June 13, 2013 at 9:35pm: I must admit - I was just on LI "browsing" - for nothing in particular - there's just so much information you can gather - it's a story teller if you follow all of the links and connections....However, I must admit, Derek, I also use it for work yet I also refer a lot of people to jobs I find while "shopping" LI.

Comment by Derdiver on June 13, 2013 at 9:49pm: No no I like LI. I dont see a reason to pay for it but I like it. Great for a sourcer that knows how to use it.

Comment by Kelly Blokdijk on June 13, 2013 at 10:07pm: I'm not sure I would give LI that much credit/blame for any of these issues. Yes. It's a centralized location to find talent and MAY in some cases make it easier to recruit. But (as Derd stated) only if the opportunity is worthy of the target candidate's attention.

As for HR leaders that may hate LI... people have joined and left companies for various reasons over the years including pre-2003 when LI was launched. Retention is typically correlated to internal organizational and cultural factors. The availability and visibility created by an external professional networking website has minimal, if any, impact on an employee's motivations to stay put or venture elsewhere.

There are several prominent sourcing professionals that pride themselves on finding the unfindable - meaning those that don't even exist on LI. I'm often amused when I see people on either side (candidates or employers) placing such an emphasis on LI being the end-all-be-all of the employment match-making equation. It's simply one tool.

I would interested in hearing more about the HR leaders that fear LI for the reasons listed. I would imagine they are not particularly astute and may not realize the their role in remaining competitive enough that employees won't be easily lured away.

~KB @TalentTalks