Requests for recommendations from ex-colleagues, former classmates and business acquaintances are fast becoming fodder for spam folders in mailboxes. And on social networking sites such as LinkedIn standard format requests pop up every once in a while. But how much effort should you really spend building your online presence with testimonials?
Brad Boyson, Executive Director at the Society for Human Resource Management, Middle East and Africa, tells GN Focus, “LinkedIn recommendations hold very little value for professional or expert recruiters who prefer first-hand rather than secondary information.”
Existential problems
That is the short answer. The long one is more complicated. Recruiters and experts say that such secondary information may work as a means of verifying that you exist. Recommendations are particularly valuable if the recruiter knows the person who has recommended you.
“Between two candidates, one who has three recommendations to one who has zero will obviously be of greater interest to a hiring manager because it adds more weight to the former’s profile,” Amit Anand, Director — Non-IT Verticals at Nastrac Group, a global boutique executive search and recruitment firm, tells GN Focus.
Anand, whose company will soon open a Dubai office, cites research proving that your online professional presence is worth maintaining. In 2012, CareerBuilder found that nearly two in five companies (37 per cent) in the US use social networking sites to research job candidates. Of these, 65 per cent used Facebook, 63 per cent used LinkedIn and 16 per cent used Twitter. However, Boyson says, “The first few stages in the candidate search process are not selection, rather these steps involve gathering and shortlisting candidates often before the candidate even knows that he is being considered. The internet is useful for these stages of screening, especially when it comes to finding passive (high quality, not actively looking) candidates.”
Apart from trawling the internet, those looking to hire routinely post jobs on LinkedIn and send job specs by BlackBerry or WhatsApp messaging services to potential employees. They spread the word on Twitter and Facebook looking for the best fit.
Ali Matar, Head — Talent Solutions, LinkedIn MENA says that recommendations are a way for members to give something back to contacts they have a good relationship with. “For hiring managers, while referrals continue to be an important step in the recruitment process, LinkedIn recommendations help to identify and shortlist candidates for consideration.”
Social media’s impact may not be as pervasive as it seems, even if you spent much of your time online polishing your presence. “Social media is an effective search tool for recruitment, but not yet a decision-making tool,” Johnson Alexander, Director HR and Quality, Health, Safety and Environment, Dulsco, tells GN Focus. “In the next decade with advanced technologies and portals, things will get more cluttered. It will be even more difficult to form an opinion about individuals. A traditional set of human resource (HR) tools are handy during such situations.” Rating it on a scale of one to ten, Alexander says that social media is a complementary tool, “I would rate it at three with one being the least important factor.”
Anand agrees. “With LinkedIn, for example, there is sometimes scope for manipulation, or biased recommendations from co-workers (same level but shown as seniors within the organisational hierarchy), which hiring managers have to be wary of. Traditional references have no loopholes and are fool-proof 99.9 per cent of the time.”
Right referrals
But when you seek referrals, there are some simple facts to remember. Recommendations from supervisors, key personnel in the company or clients and external parties are considered more realistic than those from co-workers, says Anand. A quick way of evaluating an endorsement is to check whether the two professionals recommended each other. “Recommendations on LinkedIn were never intended to replace real references,” says Boyson, who likens them to page ranking systems used in search engines or academic citations.
Recommendations from supervisors, mentors and industry leaders are highly sought. “People who endorse or recommend quid pro quo are exposing their ignorance about the real power of personal networks. Quality is more valuable than quantity. Plus, people change; a recommendation from three years ago is of significantly less value than a more recent one,” he adds.
Thus, the internet should be used more as a plan B than a plan A. “Too many people rely too heavily on the internet and not enough time on building their in-person, personal network. Looking for a job is a marketing activity and the most effective marketing is highly targeted, not mass marketing. The more specialised and professional one’s work is, the less likely the internet is to be the means that connects a candidate with their next job,” says Boyson, emphasising that your résumé gets you an interview, but the interview is what gets you the job.
Matar has the final word, “LinkedIn doesn’t seek to replace networking in person. Rather, by enabling the world’s professionals to connect and engage online, we want to make face-to-face meetings more productive.”
