LinkedIn has quickly become a fantastic tool for recruiters. Creating specific groups and effectively managing these groups is a great way to build talent communities. A terrific example of an employer’s use of the LinkedIn company profile feature is Hewlett-Packard (HP). Here is their company profile page.
HP is able to display current employees, former employees, new hires, recent promotions and changes, popular profiles as well as career path for HP employees. Key statistics like top locations, common job titles, median age and gender, news and stock information are also available.
Again, fantastic job with the company profile but when I searched for an HP group for job seekers or those outside of the HP family… there were 0 results. The only result I found was a 38,000-member group for current and former employees of Hewlett-Packard but it specifically stated, “Sorry – students, customers, contractors, (and a long list of other groups that could be a terrific source of referrals) do not qualify for membership.” I understand the need/desire for an exclusive group and would not be so disappointed if there were an alternate group for everyone else. Maybe state in their description “All others please join XYZ group.” I performed specific searches on many of the Fortune 500 and found the same to be true for many of these organizations.
An exception – Citrix Virtualization Technology with over 4,500 members. This group is owned by Barry Flanagan, the Global Microsoft Alliance Evangelist at Citrix Systems. Flanagan is able to build authentic relationships with the network on the Citrix group providing great opportunities for candidates and referrals. He is also able to stay in touch with former, valued, trusted colleagues for potential future employment relationships. Citrix doesn’t want to lose touch with people who have worked successfully for or with them in the past.
LinkedIn has many groups available for job seekers, so search for these groups and become an active participant with your corporate career account. Post questions, polls and discussions as well as participate in others.
You will notice this group has 8,017 members and is owned by Patrick Crane, VP Marketing for LinkedIn. It is an “Official Group” which means it has been verified by LinkedIn.
Pay attention to who owns your groups and who is listed as managers. This creates validation that it’s a legitimate group. The Official Group feature provides even more security for the job seekers to know that you are not a scammer, but a legitimate employer.
Here is a list of DirectEmployers Members utilizing company profile pages on LinkedIn that we are aware of at this time.
Advanced Technology Services, Inc.
AT&T
Camber Corporation
Eaton Corporation
Ernst & Young
HCR ManorCare, Inc.
Hyatt
JC Penney
Mayo Clinic
Pearson Education
Sodexo
Teradata Corporation
Union Bank
Welch Allyn
I’m sure there are others. If your company is not listed, please let me know at nancy@directemployers.org or visit our website and complete our social media form. It’s extremely important with the launch of social media within .jobs because our Members will have the ability to provide their social media links with each of their job listings. Because .jobs platform is fully integrated with social media sites like LinkedIn, job-seekers can instantly identify which of their friends or connections are working at a particular company. Again, many candidates place much more value on what a friend says about a job than any other source.
Here is a list of DirectEmployers Members who have company groups on LinkedIn that we are aware of at this time:
DRS Technologies, Inc.
HCR ManorCare, Inc.
Merck
Sodexo
Stay tuned for the next post about Twitter.
