If your internal staff is relying on internet searches on sites such as LinkedIn when looking for specific industry talent, then you’re missing 56 million potential professionals seeking a new job or career change. How is this possible? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 121 million white-collar professionals currently employed in the U.S. That number is even higher if you also include the white-collar unemployed. LinkedIn reports that it has 65 million U.S. members. Do the math and you find that there are 56 million potential contacts that your company is missing if you don’t supplement online job seeker research with other recruitment methods, such as original telephone candidate identification.
The war for talent has changed, because while there is certainly more available talent, there remains a greater need for the most qualified talent. Many position openings that are said to be “challenging” or “difficult” to fill are in fact neither. Rather, the qualified talent has not been identified, called and compelled to consider your job opportunity. Database and internet searches for those seeking a career change need to be supplemented with original phone research to find those talented individuals who aren’t using LinkedIn as a job seeker tool. In fact, many of the most qualified people are currently employed and not actively seeking a career change, so they won’t even be present on LinkedIn.
While LinkedIn has its advantages, consider these other recruiting drawbacks as well:
- Everyone is using the same information database, so they see the same candidates as you do when seeking top talent. Those with highly desired skills will no doubt be getting lots of attention, which means you have tons of competition for that person. Further, you won’t be finding top talent that’s not in that database, talent that recruiters who specialize in your industry do have in their database.
- Professional profiles must be carefully evaluated to verify that qualifications and experience are not exaggerated.
- The industry selection list is limited so you may not find very many individuals who are qualified and experienced in your consumer health products industry sector.
Don’t be left out by LinkedIn! Rather than relying on the internet to find suitable job candidates, consider an executive search firm with expertise in your company's industry sector. They know the ‘hidden’ sources of talent and can tap into their own extensive network and database to find qualified candidates to present to you for evaluation. How can we help you build your superstar team?
