Recruitment strategy: Would you rather receive a traditional CV or a link to a LinkedIn profile?
So you've made the decision to hire a new team member and your recruitment strategy needs to be informed by a very clear idea of what you're looking for. Companies go about the hiring process in many different ways. Some companies will advertise on career portals while others will look to their social media platforms - I see more and more companies advertising these roles directly on LinkedIn, specifically. Here comes the key question: would you invite a candidate for an interview based solely on their LinkedIn profile or would you still want to see their traditional CV?
I know this question is difficult to answer as everything hinges on the quality of the applicant's LinkedIn profile. Unfortunately, in many cases this leaves a lot to be desired.
In most instances, the candidates don't include enough information on their LinkedIn profiles so it leaves the client asking questions. This is not good enough! Most recruiters and hiring managers will tell you that they disregard profiles that don't include a profile picture. (Or even worse: a lovely picture of the person's two-year-old as their profile picture or one of them and their new spouse kissing at their wedding!)
As an employer, I'd always insist that candidates follow up their LinkedIn application with a traditional CV as I feel that there is so much information that you can glean off a CV. By this I mean:
- You can learn more about person's thought processes by the way they structure their CV, and
- There is also a lot to be said about a candidate's grammar and spelling.
Yes, their LinkedIn profile is helpful but I would never interview someone on the strength of their LinkedIn profile alone.
One positive about having a LinkedIn profile is that you can see and read people's recommendations and endorsements. There has been a fair amount of controversy around the endorsement process but I still think that the recommendations are valuable to read. Someone wouldn't put their name to a recommendation if they didn't mean it. This can become part of your referencing process too.
So in a nutshell, I know that a lot of my clients – in their recruitment strategy - use candidate's LinkedIn profiles as a 'back up'. They use it to cross reference the candidate's career histories, e.g. looking at if the dates and titles match up. They also use their profiles to look at the photo attached to try and jog their memories as to whether they have met this person before.
However, I strongly feel that interviews will be conducted off traditional CVs for the foreseeable future. There's just no getting around it. Looking for a new employee takes time and effort (and usually large amounts of patience thrown in for good measure). Are you willing to make the time to plan a professional interview process or are you going to 'wing it' and see what happens? I am a firm believer in the old saying of 'first impressions last' so I would encourage you to ensure that your initial contact with a prospective employee is a brilliant one!
